Summer Lovin'
by ResurrectVMars
Summary: Wallace has been kidnapped, with the help of Mac and Veronica, will he be able to escape his fate? Or will his kidnapper take it out on an innocent victim? MaDi/LoVe. Read && Review.
1. Drunken Words are Sober Thoughts

"You're staying where?" a deep voiced, broad shouldered man spoke to his daughter, whom winced when she heard his tone.

"I'm going to spend the summer with Logan, Dad. The FBI was great, but the only way I could afford to stay near D.C. and not starve would be to prostitute." The young woman protested with her father, she knew she had a point, and without a doubt so did her dad.

"And you're not staying here because…?" He questioned, as he opened the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water.

"Dad, have you seen you and Alicia lately? I love that you two got back together, but honestly? It's like constantly being inside a porn video." The blonde haired girl continued to pack t-shirts into her already bursting bag. Her father turned a little red in the cheeks, and couldn't seem to meet his daughter's eyes.

"I uhm, didn't know you were going to be here that night honey…" He began to explain.

"Dad it's no problem, why do you think I'm going to Logan's? I need to find out what all the excitement is about this thing called sex." She said, as her dad's head quickly turned towards her.

"Veronica!" He screamed, catching his daughter's attention quickly.

"Dad, I'm kidding. I'll stay a virgin until I'm 6 feet under." She lied through her teeth, her dad obviously knew she was no longer a virgin, nobody could be that oblivious, but for some reason she knew it made him feel better when she said things like that, like she wasn't 20 years old, like she wasn't going to be a sophomore in college next year. He could feel like she was his little girl still.

He smiled a quick smile, and announced he was leaving to go pick up Alicia for a nice getaway, away from Neptune. From being the town's biggest laughing stock, to being the acting sheriff, to being acquitted from the charges of the evidence to being beaten hands down in the sheriff race with Vinnie VanLowe, he needed to get away with his special lady friend every once and a while.

Veronica grabbed her cell phone and lugged the overly packed bag over her shoulder and dialed Logan's number to let him know she was on her way. She then thought she might check up on Mac, and see how the beginning of her summer was treating her.

"You're going where?!" Mac's voice bellowed, as she stood shocked in front of her parents.

"Come on honey, you'll love it. 2 months of traveling across the country and back, you'll get to see everything that the east coast has to offer." Mac's mother reassured her.

"And by the time school comes around, you'll be able to tell all your friends that you saw New York City. That'll give you some props from your buds." Her dad chimed in, trying to fit some teenage slang into what he was saying, hoping she would agree.

"Mom, Dad, as much as I'd love to spend the majority of my summer on an RV with you two and Ryan, I think I'm opting for option 2." She spoke as she sat down at the kitchen table in front of her computer.

"I don't think we ever offered you an option 2." Her dad spoke sternly.

"No, you didn't. But seeing as I'm 20, you legally have no power over me any longer." Mac spoke back sarcastically, but she had meant every word.

"Fine have it your way Cindy, but you'd better be in a hurry to find somewhere to stay along the way. Once we leave, the doors are locked at this house, you may be 20, but you certainly aren't responsible enough to care for yourself for 2 months with no income" Her mom shrugged as she grabbed some of the remaining bags in the house, and hauled them out to the waiting RV. Mac followed her quickly.

"You're saying I can't even stay at my own home over the summer? Isn't that a little harsh?" Mac questioned, a little wary of her decision to stay home at this point. Her mom held out her hand.

"Give me your house keys." She said rudely. Mac ruffled through her things in her purse. "Go inside and get anything you might need for wherever you plan on staying this summer, then give me them."

Mac went inside the house and looked through her things, what was she going to bring with her when she didn't even have anywhere to go? She grabbed a duffle bag from the inside of her closet and started putting the clothes she wore most often inside, she was startled a little when her phone began to ring.

"Bad timing Mars." She said as she tried to stuff her clothes down in the bag, to make room for more stuff.

"Should I call back later?" Veronica's voice was heard over the phone.

"Not unless you're calling to tell me I can stay with you and your dad over the summer." She said sarcastically as she tried to zip the bag closed.

"Sorry, staying with Logan this summer. Can I ask why you aren't staying at home?" she said.

"They decided this summer would be a good summer to travel cross country and head to New York." Mac said as she grabbed the now zipped bag, her laptop and headed outside to where her mom was waiting for her key still.

"Well it's not much, but if you wanna crash on Logan's couch, you're more than welcome to. That boy owes you after ." Veronica chuckled, and Mac realized she had a good point.

"Sounds good, no joke, you saved my ass Veronica." She said as she headed to her car, only car keys in hand, she watched the RV leave without even a wave to her, she knew she was going to pay for her actions come start of school, but it didn't matter. She put her bag in the passenger's seat and headed for the Neptune Grand.

"So you just invited her here?" Logan asked Veronica as she snuggled into his chest.

"She's one of the only friends I've kept since high school; I'm going to try to help her if I can." Veronica spoke softly, hoping he wasn't mad at her.

"No, it's alright. She's cool, she helped me a lot in that business class, and so this is me paying her back for it." He said as she pulled her closer, and kissed her forehead.

"Dude, you move on quick." A voice spoke from the bedroom nearest to the door.

"Yea, you should talk, Dick." Logan said harshly.

"But Parker was smokin' hot! And you just left her alone in Denver." Dick said while shaking his head and sitting on the chair near the couch.

"You intellect blows my mind, Dick. She called me from Denver saying she was staying there, do you remember anything I told you about the 'oh so wonderful Kyle?'" Logan looked towards Dick.

"So what man? She found someone else, big deal. She would have been crawling back to you if you didn't run right back to your ex." Dick glanced over at Veronica, who was glaring back at him.

"I didn't run back to my ex, I ran back to the only one who mattered to me." Logan spoke to his friend, as Veronica turned back to him with a wide eyed smile, and kissed his cheek.

"Whatever." Dick grunted as he grabbed the remote and switched on cinemax. Naked ladies, poured onto the screen.

"Porn, really?" Logan asked.

"The only good thing on television dude." Dick stated as he admired the woman forms on television. There was a short loud knock on the door, Veronica moved away from Logan and stood up and headed towards it.

"Please tell me there's food in there." Mac greeted her, and gave her a short hug.

"Two men live here, it's full of food. If you don't see anything you like, there's always take-out." Veronica joked, as she ushered Mac inside, and shut the door behind her. Logan stood, and wrapped his arm around Veronica's shoulders and smiled at Mac.

"Mi casa is su casa." Logan smiled; Mac nodded and grinned back at him. "Just ignore that." Logan pointed towards Dick. Mac had forgotten he was staying here as well. Her smile faded, as she walked past them. Veronica grabbed her shoulder.

"You okay? He won't be around much. The whole, his dad is back and about the go to prison in August thing keeps him out of the room a lot." Veronica reassured her friend.

"Yeah, I'll be okay. Not many people are jumping at giving me a place to stay for 2 months, so this is fine. No worries." She lied to her friend, things weren't going to go well if Dick was here, and she could already assume that. He was one of the men who drove her ex-boyfriend to suicide, along with a majority of a bunch of other crap, but deep inside she blamed him as much as she blamed Woody.

"Hey Macster. Long time no see." Dick greeted her half-heartedly, without removing his gaze from the fake breasts bouncing on the screen. Mac just nodded in agreement and settled herself on the chair on the other side of the couch that Logan and Veronica resumed snuggling on. She kept herself looking at the porn without realizing it, Logan and Veronica were whispering sweet nothings in each other's ears, and Dick was staring at the screen along with her, obviously not caught in a daze like Mac, but for obvious other reasons.

"So Ronnie and I are going to straighten up our room…" Logan smiled, as he picked his girlfriend up off the couch, she squealed slightly before they disappeared behind the large wooden doors.

"Must be fun huh?" Dick glanced over towards the bedroom, where they could both hear light moans and panting. Mac nodded, but never looked towards him.

"Wanna help me straighten my room too babe?" Dick said as he slithered out of his chair and sat at the end of the couch nearest Mac. Mac looked at him with disgust.

"Not hardly." Mac said as she stood up and headed towards the mini bar located behind the couch.

"We don't keep the pop over there dude, just liquor." He said as he laughed slightly.

"Who says I'm looking for pop?" Mac said, as she rifled through the small refrigerator. She pulled out a large bottle of Seagram's VO. And a smile spread across her face. "This will do." She spoke matter-of-factly and opened the top, and took a lengthy swig from the bottle.

"Whoa, didn't know you could party." Dick said as he came over to her, and grabbed a bottle of Captain from the same fridge. He opened the top, and took a swig as well. "Well, I know I'm not your friend or whatever, but we could just drink and hang together while the lovebirds do what they do best." Dick shrugged. He didn't hate this girl, he didn't even dislike her. He offered something less than friendship, hoping she'd jump at the opportunity.

"I've got to say it's better than drinking alone." She took another swig of the bottle, and glanced over at Dick's X-Box and PS3. "You have Call of Duty?" she asked. Dick tilted his head to the side and nodded. "How about drinking and video game buds?" She said a little slurred. It wasn't shocking, she didn't seem the type to drink every weekend, so those first couple of large gulps she took obviously went straight to her head.

Three hours later, both Dick and Mac realized that Logan and Veronica don't even come up for air. They laughed as they approached the wooden door, both of them toppling over their own shoelaces, tables, air, anything they could. They heard light breathing, meaning the two had fallen asleep after their sexcapades. At this time they had finished off the VO, and both were quite far beyond the drunk point. They stumbled back towards the couch in a fit of laughter.

"Damn Dick you weren't shitting me about them not coming up for air." Mac said, as her head bobbed back and forth.

"Not much for lying Macky." He said as he took a swig of Captain, the bottle they had yet to finish.

"Unlike your brother." Mac busted into hysterical laughter afterwards, in her mind she knew if she weren't drunk, she would be in a fit of tears.

"Come on Mac; give the kid some kind of credit. He was all molested and junk, and the shit me and my dad put him through. I'm surprised he didn't jump off a building sooner." Dick said seriously. Mac's laughter came to a quick halt.

"You know, I did care about him Dick. I thought at the point, I might have even loved him." She choked on her words, admitting that at all let alone to her exes brother took some guts, she needed more liquor if she was going to continue on with this story. She took the bottle out of Dick's hand and took a quick swig, and shook her head as if to shake the taste from her mouth.

"He felt the same about you too dude." Dick said rather shakily, his head rested on his hands. "I told you all that crap at your dorm room cause I was jealous." He began; he looked her in the eyes this time. "Parker obviously blew me off, and instead of owning up to it, I had to bring you down with me, just to you know, keep up my reputation." Dick said, apparently recognizing the look of sadness on Mac's face, he reached out for her shoulder and patted it. "I'm sorry." He said sincerely before removing his hand and grabbing the bottle and taking a long gulp from it, before standing; unsuccessfully. He stood too quickly lost his balance and landed directly on Mac's lap. The two laughed hysterically about it until he was able to stand upright, without falling.

"I'm heading to bed dude." Dick announced, he gave her an army salute and headed towards his bedroom grinning. Mac was giggling like a young girl from the salute, and she hadn't any idea why, at least, no other idea besides the liquor clogging her blood. She herself lay down on the couch and grabbed a blanket hanging on the back of it; she covered herself and stared at the TV screen.

"Naked ladies are still on?" She spoke out loud to herself, and giggled once again. She enjoyed having a drinking buddy; it WAS in fact better than drinking alone. She thought about how genuine Dick had seemed tonight, maybe it was the liquor. The old saying "Drunken words are sober thoughts" was going through her head, and she did hope that it was true. She let herself fall into a thought filled sleep. Her mind was racing from Cassidy, to Logan and Veronica, to Dick. Eventually she shook the entire night from her mind; at least for the time being, and was able to sleep soundly.


	2. I Do Have Regrets

**A/N: Okay, I realized that I didn't even post an author's note at ALL the last chapter :/ Well, here's the author's note. Yes, this will be MaDi, but I'm not just going to throw them together. I have yet to figure out a decent way of eventually taking this story, but I promise it will be good :] So please keep reviewing guys! It'll *magically* help me update O.o I'd like to see about 10 reviews or so before I post chapter three, which yes, is written already :] So let's get them reviews piling in!**

**Oh! Disclaimer! Yeah, don't own a thing! Not the characters, not the plot, not anything that involves this show, unless you count this fanfiction. Then yes, I do own this fanfiction. But that is all my friends.**

Mac felt the sunlight hit her like a ton of bricks. It seemed that at some point she had uncovered her face and turned towards the balcony on the couch. Her eyes shut hard, as her nose squinted and she covered her head with the blanket.

"Morning drinkin' buddy." Dick said overly chipper, as he plopped himself down at the end of the couch near her feet. She grunted and mumbled a select few words under her breath before she emerged from the cocoon that she had made during the night.

"For the love of God, what time is it?" She mumbled, as she flattened the obvious mess her hair had become overnight.

"A little after 2 dude, you slept all day." Dick said as he patted her feet through the blanket.

"How are you not like this, dude?" Mac said mocking him as she rubbed her eyes, and opened them to squint at Dick, whom looked like he had already showered and gotten ready for the day.

"You realize I drink every weekend right?" He laughed at Mac's appearance, as she fell back against the pillow behind her, and began to rub her temples with her fingers. "You have a headache?"

"Is it obvious?" Mac said as she sat upright and stood, losing her balance at first and grabbing onto the table that was in front of her. She went over to the balcony's doors and pulled the curtains over them, and sauntered back to the couch. She sat herself down and was now able to open her eyes more full then before. Dick had left and retrieved aspirin from his bedroom.

"Do you want water or some more of the good stuff?" Dick joked as he held up the nearly full bottle of Captain. Mac felt her stomach to a quick flip flop in her stomach.

"Water's fine. Dick." She paused between the two phrases, emphasizing his name. He smiled, as if used to hearing it said in that manner. He grabbed a bottle of water from the actual refrigerator, and tossed it to Mac, who opened it quickly and downed the pills as if her life depended on it. The hotel door flew open quickly, and in came Veronica with a couple of brown paper bags.

"Chinese sounded better than room service." Veronica explained. Mac crinkled her nose, and headed away from the smell. Veronica and Logan looked at her with questioning expressions.

"She and I got shitwasted last night." Dick said matter-of –factly, as he opened the first paper bag and pulled out a carton of what looked like chop suey.

"Mac? And You? Drinking?" Veronica looked more than a little shocked.

"Last time that will ever happen." Mac said coldly, as she laid her head against the cool of the balcony door. Dick smiled slightly, and glanced over to Mac, he felt horrible for the misery she was in. He figured she had drunk fairly often by the way she was downing the liquid last night, but he figured wrong.

"Dude, that chick can throw down." Dick said a little too loudly for Mac's liking. She huffed loudly before heading towards Dick's bedroom.

"I'm jocking your bed, because I feel like hell and you don't." She said quickly before shutting the doors attached to the room. She looked around the room once inside, praying she wouldn't find used condoms somewhere lodged in the sheets on his bed. She glanced at a dresser in the corner of his room where he had a picture in a frame laying flat against the top of it. She flipped it over to find a picture of what looked like a younger Cassidy, on a bike. His feet taped to the pedals, Dick was in the picture laughing hysterically on the ground. Before she realized it, a tear fell from her left eye and rolled down her cheek.

"Just so you know." Dick startled her, he had snuck in the room a little after she had gotten there. "I have regrets." He sighed loudly, as she quickly put the picture back in its rightful position.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snoop…" She began, realizing Dick didn't care whether she apologized or not. He sunk to the bed, and she walked towards him cautiously.

"I meant what I said last night. He loved you dude." Dick said softly, without taking his stare away from the floor. "I don't know why I gave you so much hell; you were the only person in Beav's life that treated him like a person." Dick's voice got shaky over the last couple of words he spoke.

"Dick, I'm sure it's not as bad as you make it out to be. Brother's do that kind of thing to each other." Mac spoke, trying to comfort him. He looked over at her, and realized her eyes were surprisingly comforting.

"Brother's don't usually tell everyone in middle school that their brother is gay. They don't usually put lube and open condom wrappers around their room whenever a girl's supposed to come over. They don't usually have contests with their father to see who can make that brother cry. They usually don't take their clothes from the school's locker room so they'd have to walk around naked…" Dick paused, realizing Mac's eyes had dropped down to the floor, and her mouth was partially open. "Beav never did anything to me, or my dad. In fact, he far outshined me in school since kindergarten. I wanted nothing more than to make his life hell and make him hate himself." Dick sucked in air, and fell silent.

"He had way more going on in his head than what you did to him. I'm sure what Woody did to him obviously made a huge impression on the rest of his life." Mac said, unsure of what to do at this point. Before she knew it, he had engulfed her into a tight hug. He squeezed her slightly and gripped onto her back.

"Thanks." Dick began as he broke away from the hug. "If it weren't for you, I'm pretty sure my brother would have ended his life a lot sooner." He said sweetly, with a smile that didn't quite meet his eyes. He stood up, put his "Dick" face back on and headed back out towards the living room, and started to chow down on the chop suey he had left behind.

"Well now I won't be able to sleep this hangover off." Mac mumbled as she glanced back at the overturned picture frame, and she herself stood up and headed towards the couch. She noticed that Dick was the same Dick he was before he left for the bedroom, cracking jokes, making "that's what she said" comments, and overall being himself. Being a dick.

"Good choice." Veronica said through a mouthful of rice. "I wouldn't go near that bed either." She smiled at her friend cautiously. Mac smiled back at her; there was no need to be rude to Veronica. She honestly had no genuine reason to be rude to anybody. She sat herself down next to Dick on the couch and glanced at the television. To her surprise, no porn was on the television and they had in fact ordered a movie.

"So Mac, when did you become this hard partier?" Logan questioned with a smirk, poking at this carton of food with chopsticks.

"You know how it is. Girl drinks first beer, Girl goes to first kegger, Girl gets shitwasted at said kegger, Girl becomes legend." Mac laughed, as she realized the smell of the food went from appalling to tempting since her headache had dissipated. The three laughed at her comment and continued eating. Dick glanced over at the wanting look on Mac's face, his small smile formed into a beaming grin.

"You know, you can eat it. Logan here was nice enough to get you some vegetable crap." Dick said with disgust, as if being vegan was like being a murderer. She didn't hesitate a bit as she opened the bag and pulled out some sort of vegetable stir fry, the smell teased her taste buds and before she could realize it she was eating it like crazy. "Slow down there Macky." Dick said, teasing her playfully. She glared and smirked at him.

Logan and Veronica exchanged glances. If they hadn't known any better, it seems like their friends here were becoming friends as well. Logan shrugged as he put the cartons back on the coffee table in front of them.

"So, Logan and I are going to hit up the movies. Wanna come with?" Veronica offered, as she stretched out her limbs and fell back against Logan's chest.

"I've been meaning to ask you something Mars." Mac said through a mouthful of fried veggies. "Weren't you and Piz inseparable last time I saw you?" She said as she took another bite from the carton. Logan shifted uncomfortably, and Veronica cleared her throat.

"Well, yeah. Before he told me about this person he met and how wonderful they are." Veronica, reddened a bit in the face, as she looked over towards Mac.

"He found another girl in New York? You can't be serious." She said quickly.

"Not quite." She said a little embarrassed at the fact herself. "His name is Todd." Veronica said quickly, before Logan cracked a smile and Mac and Dick's mouths fell to the floor.

"Piz is gay?!" Mac screamed more than questioned. With that her and Dick were both laughing as Veronica nodded her head. "So, he has sex with you and heads to New York and becomes gay? Why Ms. Mars, I never knew you had THAT affect on men." Mac said as she tried to stifle her laughter.

"Guys! I didn't turn him gay! Knock it off." Veronica said, obviously flustered at the conversation. "So, I hate you and I retract my invitation for you two to come to the movies with us." Veronica said smartly, which just made Mac and Dick laugh even louder. Veronica and Logan headed for the door, and left quickly. It seemed that Veronica was actually quite mad about the entire situation, Mac felt a little guilty.

"Don't feel guilty about laughing dude." Dick said. It frightened her a little that her face was that readable. She nodded.

"I still can't believe it; he's hot for a gay guy." Mac said, as she reached for the bottle of water in front of her.

"You think that dude is hot? You've got to be kidding me." Dick started laughing once again. "Don't let Max know that."

"You know about Max?" Mac asked.

"Dude, Logan tells me everything. Remember that night you were here for the website? And that Max dude came over?" He said, as she looked over towards her, she seemed to be smiling at the memory.

"Yeah well, I'd tell him to his face if I didn't despise him." Mac said once again, drinking the water as if it was something much stronger. Something her stomach still turned at the thought of.

"Now that's not a way to talk about your boyfriend." Dick joked, which in turn he received a swift punch on the arm for. He silently mouthed an "Oww" and rubbed the spot on his arm gingerly.

"He's far from my boyfriend at this point, he met a girl, and they used to be friends a long time ago. He impressed her with his growing wealth from his cheating business, and started a new business of cheating." She sighed, thinking about how amazing he was to her before she walked in on them together in his dorm room.

"I'm sorry to hear it Macky, but think of it this way." Dick began and slung his arm around her shoulders, "Now you can be single and make out with anybody you want to." He smiled his Dick smile, and gave her a half-assed hug.

"Yeah that's totally how I look at it." She said as she rolled her eyes, but didn't bother to try to move his arm from her shoulders, she felt oddly comforted, even if it was by Dick.

She'd never know it, but he did too. In a way for making up for the awful things he had put his brother through; he wanted to make sure the one person who gave him the time of day was never hurt again. He hoped she'd never have to feel pain like that again in her life, and he'd be damned if some skinny nerd was going to get away with hurting her like this. He realized he'd let his arm linger, and she wasn't objecting to it. An odd feeling washed over him, a feeling of satisfaction. She finally trusted him, and it was good to have a girl not slither away when his arm was over her, even it was only Mac.


	3. For Those Who Nose

**A/N: Alright, I couldn't wait to update until I got my 10****th**** review, so at 9 reviews, here is chapter 3. Hahaaha. Well, I really hope that you're still enjoying the fanfiction, I'm going to try to update as soon as possible, I'd like to do it every day, but I'd get few reviews. Gotta make you guys wait, even if it's only for a little while. This is the new chapter! Have fun reading :D**

**Disclaimer is in Chapter 2.**

Mac had retreated to Logan and Veronica's room after her moment with Dick on the couch. She was as confused as she could be. Just yesterday her parents had left her and were well on the road to New York by now, she got drunk with someone who she considered her worst enemy, and then today realized that that enemy did have feelings, he didn't show them often, but she realized that they were there. Her head hurt and she couldn't blame it on the alcohol any longer.

Once Mac had left the room to lie down in Logan's room, Dick turned the television on and turned right to cinemax. It was as if the naked ladies were calling to him, he leaned back against the couch and smiled at the site of the tanned flesh on the TV screen. These girls never did a thing for him sexually; it was just more of an obligation to them more or less. He'd been fairly celibate since the last week of school and was craving sexual attention, but with Madison being the stuck up bitch she was, as well as a prude, he doubted he should just ring her up and see if she was going to answer his booty call. The few girls he'd met in college hadn't tickled his fancy right, and to be with Dick you had to tickle his fancy with just enough force to--- well you get the drift. He glanced over towards the hotel room door and heard bickering from outside, he got up and let himself into Logan and Veronica's room. He didn't want to be around for another fight between them. He shut the door quietly behind him.

"_I swear you're just as much of an asshole as I thought you were." Veronica screamed loudly. Throwing something loud to the floor that Dick figure was her messenger bag she toted everywhere._

Dick sighed loudly. "This is why one night stands are more meaningful that relationships." He whispered to himself, realizing that he hadn't even glanced over at Mac whom seemed to be in a deep slumber. He walked over towards the bed and studied her figure. Her chocolate locks were pulled back in a sad attempt for a ponytail; the hair fell just over her right shoulder. Dick tilted his head sideways and realized how peaceful and at ease she was when she slept.

"Well, if I have to listen to those two, I shouldn't be alone." He smirked as he grabbed an unoccupied pillow from the side of Mac, knelt down on the bed beside her, raised the pillow above his head and brought it down on her side.

"Dick!" She awoke quickly, grabbed the pillow from his hands and repeatedly hit him in the head with it. "I." She began and hit him once again. "Was sleeping!" She said with a slight hoarse to her voice from the drowsiness, and continued to hit Dick, who had now laid back on the bed, brought himself into the fetal position and was covering his head while laughing loudly.

"Macky, stop!" Dick said while trying to grab the pillow away from her with success. He tossed the pillow across the room and headed back to the wooden doors and placed his ear close to it.

"You hearing voices again?" Mac said coyly, as she came closer to the door and realized she heard the voices as well, but they were familiar, so she joined Dick and placed her ear close to the door as well.

"_You just jump to conclusions Veronica, that's all you ever do! There were other girls, and you knew that when your boyfriend turned gay and dumped you." Logan screamed at her._

Dick and Mac chuckled heartily, not believing that after a girl like Veronica a guy would turn gay.

"_At least he cared enough about me to tell me! Unlike you and Rose, Tory, Yvonne, Faye, Georgia etcetera etcetera!" She screamed as she paced the living room, holding back tears in her eyes._

"_You know how Dick is, when he wants to party he wants to go all out! Ronnie, those were just random girls that meant nothing to me. You have to believe me." Logan pleaded._

"Why am I not surprised you're behind this fight?" Mac said harshly towards the boy in front of her. She rolled her eyes. Feelings? What was she saying about him having feelings earlier?

"That's the story he'll tell her. The boy adores her; he won't tell her the truth." Dick shook his head, he was getting a little fed up that every time he decided to have a party with liquor and Logan gets wasted and does things that he'll regret, he blames him.

"_Good to know you'll stick your dick in random girls." Veronica said sweetly, even though Mac couldn't see her or her expression she knew her well enough to know her head was tilting to the side and Veronica plastered on a pathetic excuse for a smile._

"The girl knows good comebacks at least." Mac shrugged and Dick smiled. He agreed, between Logan and Veronica; she was the queen of comebacks. Sure, Logan had his quick wit to back him up but no matter the fight, it seemed she always claimed the victor. The intensity died down quickly after that, Logan shouted a few curse words at her; she shot them back.

"_I'm done Ronnie, think what you want but its Dick's fault." He said._

The doors quickly flung open, leaving Mac and Dick exposed. Ears held out and bent down. Dick stood up indignantly, and moved closer to Logan and looked him directly in the eyes.

"So I didn't know it was my fault you screwed 3 or 4 girls at that party? I don't remember forcing you." Dick said smugly, Mac smirked as did Veronica.

"You invited them over and told them I was single. It's your fault they were all over me." Logan said accusatorily and pointed his finger to Dick's face.

"I didn't go out and buy a jumbo pack of condoms and then—" He was cut off by Logan's fist meeting harshly with his nose, he stumbled back as Mac grabbed his shoulder.

"Logan!" Veronica rushed over to Dick's side. She glanced back up at her boyfriend. "Have you lost it? He's right, and I'll never admit it any other time to anybody. You did those things that night, and only you, don't blame your friend for having a party." Veronica said as she turned back to Dick, who was talking to Mac and she was holding a tissue to his bloody nose. Veronica sighed and brushed past Logan and left the hotel room in a flash.

Logan tossed his hands up in the air, grabbed a bottle from the mini fridge and headed towards the door.

"If my darling shows back up tell her I'm going to drink with some friends. Emphasize the drinking part." He smirked, and slammed the door behind him.

"I thought this drama ended after high school?" Mac asked blankly, as she focused on Dick's nose which wouldn't stop bleeding.

"Drama never ends when you're around the people who cause it." Dick said blandly, as he placed his fingers on top of Mac's on his shattered nose. Her fingers quickly vacated the spot for his.

"Can I ask you something?" Mac questioned, as she sat down on the bed and glanced up at him. He looked down and sat beside her.

"Sure Macster. Anything for you." He joked as he pushed harder on the swollen piece of cartilage on his face, begging the bleeding to stop.

"Are you okay?" She asked sincerely. Things hadn't been the same since they were alone with the picture of him and Beaver, it seemed like this happiness was a great façade built to keep others from questioning him. Sadly, Mac saw through the façade like a transparent fabric.

"Course I am." He said half-heartedly and shrugged, looking quickly away from her face. She nodded, she didn't want to pry, and she had just started to like the guys company. She smiled towards him.

"Alright, let's see the damage." She said as she took the mound of blood covered tissues away from his nose. Her eyes widened, and her mouth hung open a tad.

"Am I still hot?" Dick said conceitedly. Mac tilted her head and gazed and the swollen purple lump that was once Dick's nose.

"Uhm…" She stated, and began to bite her lip. "If chicks can look past that honker, you know you're hot." She said sarcastically and smiled widely. Dick placed his hand over his nose.

"Great, now I have no self confidence." Dick said and over dramatically frowned, and puffed his bottom lip out. She slugged his arm playfully. "You want me to have a swollen bruised arm too, dude?" He asked jokingly. He stood up quickly, and realized the pain was almost unbearable. Mac noticed the obvious misery in his face.

"Go get some sleep. I'll bring you some aspirin." She said wholeheartedly, and headed off to where she had last left the aspirin; while Dick headed towards his own bedroom. She brought the bottle of pills into Dick's room unannounced along with a bottle of water. She froze when she saw Dick shirtless and in his boxers. "Sorry." She said quickly and turned away from him.

"It's cool, as long as you like ducks." He pointed towards his print boxers, which had rubber ducks in tiny bathtubs. She giggled quietly and handed him the bottle of pills and received a spark from his hand. She snapped her finger away and shook it.

"You sparked me. You and your damn ducks." She said sarcastically.

"You know how it is with me and girls Macky." He began and walked closer to her. "Sparks are bound to fly." He spoke softly with a sly grin. Mac could feel her face flush, but couldn't allow Dick to notice.

"Does that silly line actually work on some girls?" Mac said and shook her head softly.

"I don't know, you tell me." He smiled once again. And Mac headed towards the door, and turned back once before leaving.

"I'm not most girls Dick." She said sweetly and shut the door behind her.


	4. Macky and Dickie

**A/N: I am trying to post these chapters quickly, I have a lot of spare time right now but I am going back to work tomorrow, so I will try to finish another chapter this weekend, but the chapter after this is already written. I like to keep myself a couple chapters ahead so I don't rush to finish one just so I can update it. Read and review guys, the hit counter and visitor counter is amazing. Thanks for reading this fic!**

Mac awoke much earlier than the previous day. She felt good, she wasn't hung over, wasn't angry, wasn't sad. She thought today was going to be a pretty good day. She glanced over at Dick's bedroom, the doors were still shut. She glanced over at Logan's room and realized that neither he nor Veronica showed back up at all during the night. She took the moments of being the only one awake to head into Logan's bedroom and take a quick shower.

Dick wasn't sleeping well. He hadn't throughout the night. The odd intensity of Mac's words last night played over and over like a broken record in his head. It seems he was overanalyzing things, and having trouble trying to figure out why those words made him sleep horribly. He closed his eyes again, but before he could fall back asleep he heard the shower turn on in the opposite bedroom. He figured he may as well get up and get ready as well. After all, what were 5 hour energy shots made for? He dragged his feet into his own bathroom to get in the shower as well.

20 minutes into both Mac and Dick's showers, they realized they were running out of hot water, and quickly. Mac rinsed the shampoo from her hair as quick as she could but realized soon that she wasn't going to get to add the conditioner; the water had gone from tepid to cold. Her body shivered beneath the stream, and she turned it off quickly. She grumbled and headed to Dick's bedroom after slipping into a bath robe. She met him halfway; he was in a bath robe as well.

"Now what logic did you use to get in the shower, while I was in it as well?" Mac questioned, while moving a damp piece of hair away from her face.

"You know how much this room is a night? I figured if we were going to fork over a ton of cash they'd at least have hot water." Dick shook his head, slightly spraying Mac's face slightly. She blinked, and smiled solidly.

"So any idea on how to remedy this situation?" Mac asked as she sat herself on the couch, exposing one of her legs from beneath the bath robe, she quickly fixed herself so that both legs were fully covered.

"Well since you're a vegan and all that save the world crap you used to do with Bronson." He began, she looked puzzled. How did he know about Bronson as well? "Once again, Veronica talks, Logan talks, I listen dude." He stated, and then continued. "Save water, shower together babe." He winked and gave her his best smile.

"I was thinking more along the lines that you'd just wait, while I showered first." She said smoothly, and leaned back against the couch. He rolled his eyes and nodded. "About how long does it take for the hot water to come back?" Mac questioned him.

"Logan's in there forever usually. I wait a couple of hours." Mac's eyes widened.

"Hours?" She asked.

"It's just how long I wait, I don't know if that's like the exact amount of time or whatever." He said, as she sat beside her and turned on the TV. Mac sighed.

"No porn." She said firmly as she grabbed at the remote that Dick decided to play 'keep away' with. "Dick!" She said loudly, as she moved as quick as she could to get the remote from him, it was more difficult than she had thought.

"Does Macky want the remote?" Dick said in a mocking tone.

"Does Dickie want my foot up his ass?" Mac said back to him before she lunged forward. Her hand met with the remote, and her arm unfortunately met with his nose. He grunted, and held his nose tightly in his right hand.

"Dude. I thought you said foot up my ass not arm up my nose." He said with a nasal tone to his voice, and looked over at the girl who looked awe-struck.

"Dick I am so sorry." She said softly and placed her hand on his shoulder. "How bad is it?" She said as he turned towards her. His nose was not bleeding thankfully, but it had definitely swollen up again. She flinched when she saw it.

"I guess it's that bad." He said and chuckled to himself, he kept looking towards her as she brought her hand to his cheek and tilted his head back. "Mac it isn't bleeding, you don't need to do this." He said, looking as if he were talking to the ceiling.

"Your septum is crooked." She said matter-of-factly, as she brought his head back down to eye level.

"This isn't the first time I've broke it; I surf I've done it a million times beforehand." He said, as she nodded. He glanced down at her uncovered leg. It was as pale as he thought skin could get, it was as if she'd never stepped foot out into the light, but it was oddly intriguing. He felt his stomach turn just a little, as she shifted her position and the robe uncovered a little more thigh. It was as if he was waiting and hoping for her to shift a little bit more, just to see a little bit more of that pale skin.

"Oh good movie." She said as she stopped on The Whole Nine Yards. She adjusted herself so she was sitting on her legs now. Dick felt his heart sink a little bit when the endless pale skin was gone. He glanced at the TV and was greeted with a movie he had never seen.

"What is this?" He questioned, glancing at a man with a tattoo of a tulip on his forearm.

"Good movie, basically a serial killer befriends a dentist. Hilarity ensues, and yadda yadda yadda." Mac spoke quickly, as if to shush Dick. The both turned their heads towards the hotel room door when they heard someone fiddling with the keycard. A small blonde frame walked in.

"Am I interrupting?" Veronica asked, noticing the bathrobes both Mac and Dick were sporting.

"He wishes." Mac spoke quickly before realizing what she had said, he laughed lightly.

"Have you seen my boyfriend? About 6 feet tall? Not lanky, not bulky. Kind of a jackass?" Veronica asked playfully.

"He went out drinking with friends last night; I don't think he's been back." Mac answered, and saw a look cross across Veronica's face, it wasn't anger it seemed to be more of disappointment.

"Well, I'll be in our room." Veronica said sheepishly, and headed towards the open wooden doors.

"Or, you could stay here and watch a movie with us?" Mac offered, but Veronica shook her head and closed the doors behind her.

"More like you wish." Dick said, without letting his eyes slip from the television.

"I wish? Hardly." Mac shook it off, shaking her head in disbelief that she felt her stomach flip inside of her. Even if she did wish, she'd never let him know a thing.

"Give it some time babe; you won't be able to resist the Dick." He said, referring to without a doubt, more than just himself.

"Oh yes, please Dick. Take me hard on this couch. I can't live without you." Mac said in a severe monotone, while glancing up at him. He smiled brightly.

"See? I knew you wished for it." He said as he leaned back and stretched his legs out, his toes falling on top of Mac's. He knew it would get to her, and he kind of liked it. She felt her heart quicken when his toes landed on hers, but refused to let it affect her in anyway.

"1, 2, 3, 4 I declare a toe war?" Mac questioned, and then smiled. He made it so easy for her to make fun of him, she obviously never meant to hurt him in any way or shape, but it was fun goofing around.

"You want a war?" Dick said, as he looked towards her and their eyes met. "I'll give you a war." Dick said, and without another word he launched himself over her lightly grabbing at the side of her ribs, she tried everything she could to get away from the intense tickling that Dick was putting her through. She laughed jovially, and felt her face redden from the intensity. Dick on the other hand couldn't believe how adorable she looked when she wasn't cracking jokes or had her face inside a laptop. He let her ribs go when she pleaded that she could no longer breath.

"That was no war." Mac stated, as she sat up and faced Dick. "That was a shutout." She said, he held out her hand towards him. "Peace treaty?" She offered. He glanced at the hand for a while; her fingers were painted a dark shade of blue, much like the current streak through her hair. He took her hand.

"I will shake this hand now, but know that this is just for today." Dick said as he shook her hand.

"Fair enough." She nodded, and turned her attention towards the TV. Dick couldn't keep his eyes off of her. She wasn't wearing any makeup, her hair was beginning to curl due to it drying before she got to pay any kind of attention to it, and the fact that she was naked beneath the terry cloth robe didn't help him either.

"I do see it Mac." He said before he could stop himself.

"The movie plot? Duh, it's not exactly rocket science." She said as she continued to watch the television.

"What my brother saw in you." He began, "The day at the beach, I wasn't lying. You're really cool, and fun to be around, and it helps that you're easy on the eyes too." Dick said. Still in shock that he had actually said that all aloud, to the girl he wanted to say it to. She turned towards him.

"You going to try and kiss me this time?" Mac joked, or at least tried to joke. She knew if he had tried to kiss her at this point, she'd probably have very little objection. He sat up and looked into her eyes. He brought his hand up to her cheek, and grazed the soft pale skin beneath his fingertips.

"No, I'm not going to try." He said as he inched himself closer to her, now breathing in her shampoo scent which smelled vaguely of vanilla and lavender. "I'm just going to do it." He said as he brought himself closer to her, he heard her catch her breath and noticed her not pulling away, if anything, she was moving towards him as well.

"Logan's in jail!" Veronica cried, as she burst through the wooden doors. Mac and Dick both jumped up suddenly and looked at each other. They both desperately wanted what was about to happen, and didn't know when the next chance for that to happen would be.


	5. Indecent Exposure

**A/N: Alright, I honestly can't believe the awesome feedback I've been getting on this story. You guys are absolutely amazing! And yes, I am going to finish writing this story no matter what. I am not sure how long it will be, but it will be throughout the summer and maybe the first two weeks of their sophomore year, other than that I can't really tell whether it will be 15 chapters or 50, you know? But anyways, thanks so much for all the reviews, and even more for the hit/visitor count. Okay, enough of my babble, here's the chapter.**

**A/N2: Sorry for the delay! I wanted to upload this yesterday but this site was having issues and kept telling me that my file was corrupted . So! Here you go! Chapter 5 is up and running! Thanks for all the reviews and alerts, you guys rock :D Happy reading!**

"Logan, I can't believe you." Veronica said as she handed an officer behind the desk at the sheriff's office her credit card.

"You are aware he's still behind bars right now, right?" Mac asked quietly, hoping not to bother her right now.

"He's safer behind those bars than he will be with me, that's for sure." Veronica spoke quickly, as the deputy behind the desk scanned her card through the system.

"Come on Ronnie, have a sense of humor. Your boy got drunk and ran around the beach naked." Dick stifled a laugh, as Mac glanced up at him.

"Fun fun fun until someone has to post the 500 dollar bail for his ass. He's the one with money in this relationship, not me." She said hastily, as she took her card back from the man.

"They wouldn't let him post it himself this time around; I guarantee he'll pay you back." Mac tried to speak reassuringly, but realized it wasn't enough for Veronica.

"Pay me back for what, Mac? He lied to me." Veronica spoke harshly.

"You guys weren't even together when those girls happened. Cut him some slack." Mac added, and Veronica's head turned toward her in a snap.

"You dated the guy who raped me; you have no say in this. You wouldn't know what a relationship was if it bit you in the ass." Veronica said as she hurried back to the cell which was holding her boyfriend. Mac wrapped her arms around herself, and her eyes dropped to the floor. Dick glanced over towards her, and couldn't even find any kind of words to make her feel better at this point. He just placed an arm around her shoulders and gently rubbed his thumb against her shirt.

Veronica felt herself rush off in a hurry and it occurred to her what she had actually said to her best friend. What she had let slip out of her lips. Mac didn't know that Beaver had done any of the things to her, she hadn't known that he blew up the bus, she hadn't known that he was molested and damaged in the mind afterwards. She let all of her anger at Logan out on Mac, when she hadn't deserved it.

Logan stumbled from his cell and wrapped an arm around Veronica's shoulders, and she just helped him along to her car. They hadn't passed Mac or Dick while leaving. She figured that Dick had taken Mac back to the hotel in a cab or some sort of transportation, she felt horrible about the harsh words that had fallen from her lips earlier, and she would have done anything to rewind just a few minutes and keep those horrible things she said; inside her head.

"I luh you wonnie." Logan mumbled out through his obvious drunkenness, she smiled. For some reason whenever they were alone and he was drunk; he was this complete sweetheart that he can be from time to time when they were alone and he wasn't intoxicated.

"Let's just get you home." She mumbled quickly as she helped him into her Saturn before closing the door behind him.

Dick hadn't taken her home to the hotel. He let her go wherever she wanted to go; he tagged behind her wordlessly until they hit the sandy shores that were the beach. He didn't complain a bit, he loved this place. The shoreline and the waves had seen the tears he shed after Cassidy's death, after everything was released to the public. His brother had been molested, and his teasing and mockery not only lead him to his untimely death but led him to treat Mac like a dog once she wanted to further their relationship.

Mac approached the shoreline and felt the cold water jet across the tops of her feet, she enjoyed the numbing sensation it brought. The coolness of the water made her inhale and exhale heavily. She slipped out of her shoes and headed farther into the water. Dick seemed puzzled; he wasn't sure what she was going to do at this point. He watched her wade into the water up to her knees; she seemed so at peace with herself. She brought her hands into the water and seemed to let her flow through her fingers. He decided to join her in the water; we waded out to her quickly. He reached her and watched her keep letting the water flow through her fingers as she attempted to pick it up with open hands.

"You okay?" He asked, with all the sincerity that he could muster. He wanted nothing more than to take her hand that was red from the chill of the water and place it in his own and tell her that things will be alright, but he wouldn't do that. He was Dick, he didn't show that he cared about girls; he showed them what was under his pants. He didn't want to hold their hand; he wanted to get down to business. Mac was different, she was right that she wasn't like more girls. She had a strange hold on him that he couldn't decipher yet, but he didn't like how it felt to want more from a girl than a one night stand.

"This place reminds me of him." She said, she never looked up towards him. She kept her eye fixated at the dark water beneath them. "He slipped through our fingers just like the ocean water does, and we could have done something if he had just told us anything." She felt herself stifle a sob that was beginning to burn the back of her throat. The tears were imminent but not here and not now.

"You really cared about him didn't you?" Dick looked over at her face, which was now looking over the dark horizon in front of them with the miles of ocean pouring out in front of them.

"I'm pretty sure I might have loved him. He always treated me so well; he kissed my cheek and held my hand in the hallway. He carried my books to class without me even having to ask him. He helped me study even though he knew how intelligent I was." She began to feel a hot tear roll down her face. "But then he blew up a bus of kids, left me naked in a hotel room, and threatened to kill Veronica's dad. It's like a switch was hit and he was this completely different person, an evil doppelganger of the only guy who noticed I existed at that school." She said quietly. She didn't want to feel pity from Dick, but she felt it in the pit of her stomach, she knew that it was coming and there was nothing she could do about it.

"You weren't exactly the easiest person to talk to." Dick began, "You were a girl that was smart, who wouldn't fall for any old pickup line." He finished quickly. Mac had realized that he was right. She wasn't approachable in high school, everyone had known her since she was in 2nd grade, and even then people knew she was intelligent. By high school, nobody was shocked to see that she was in the top standings for the Kane scholarship along with Veronica.

"I guess I never realized that before, sometimes I wish people would look past the intellect and find that maybe I'm not looking for a guy with a higher IQ than I have, or a guy that could help me launch and internet business after college." She turned to Dick before continuing. "Maybe I'd be just fine with a guy who would let me kick his ass in Call of Duty or Need for Speed." She smiled a slight smile before returning her gaze at the already risen moon above the water.

"Maybe there's somebody you might like to meet back at the hotel. He's extremely good looking, and isn't too shabby at video games." Dick smiled back and met her eyes with his. She turned to head back to the main road while Dick called a cab company to meet them and drop them off at the Neptune Grande. The cab ride was sufficiently awkward, they both stared out the windows by their sides and both kept thinking about how badly they had wished they had kissed each other at the beach. The ride was slow in their heads, but in reality it was about a 15 minute drive. They exited the cab after tossing him some cash, and headed up to the room. He slid the keycard through the door and opened it, ushering Mac in first.

Veronica came jogging out of Logan's bedroom and hugged Mac awkwardly. Neither of them were the type to hug much, but she felt it was necessary.

"Mac I am so sorry for what I said. The anger I felt towards Logan came out at you. I never meant any of the things I said to you." She said quickly, but very heartfelt. Her eyes kept darting between both of Macs. She knew Veronica was worried, but she smiled.

"It's okay, it's fine really V. It's been a long time; I think I can handle some criticism for whom I've dated." Mac joked lightly, knowing very well that she wasn't over Cassidy, the boy who had loved her for her and felt like she had meant the world to him. She knew for sure she was over Beaver, the opposite side of Cassidy that she never knew that he had until the night he left her naked in that hotel room.

"You are an awesome chick Mac-Attack, I don't know how you can forgive so easily." Veronica smiled and tapped her lightly on the shoulder before leaving towards Logan's room, where Logan was fast asleep and Veronica was tending to his mid-sleep vomiting. A knock was heard on the door, and Mac went over to answer it while Dick headed towards his room. A blonde haired woman greeted her.

"Uhm, can I help you?" Mac asked questioningly.

"Is Dick around?" She said in a voice that was born to become a phone sex operator. She shifted her weight on her dark grey stilettos, and adjusted her augmented top half so that the balloons filling her bra popped out just a bit more.

"Uhm, yeah, can I tell him who's looking for him?" Mac felt her voice break, it was as if she had been played by yet another Casablancas, it was getting difficult for her to trust any of the men from that family.

"Kendra." She spoke and smiled sweetly at her, seeming as if to say 'Yes honey, he's my date for the night.' Mac nodded and left the door slightly opened and ushered her to follow her inside. She headed towards Dick's bedroom and rapped slightly against the wood. He opened it up and smiled at her.

"Finally ready for some Dick action?" He asked jokingly as he looked towards the door, and his smile faded. The blonde woman was tilting her head and waving at him seductively.

"Not me, but someone named Kendra is." Mac said quietly, as she looked deep into his ice blue eyes. She realized he couldn't look back at her, but it wasn't because he was looking at the soon to be supermodel standing in the foyer either, his eyes were glued to the floor, and they stayed that way as he walked away from Mac and headed towards the blonde.

"You ready to hit the town tonight babe?" She said as she placed a kiss on his cheek, and a ghost of a smile crept upon his face. He nodded as he opened the door fully, and glanced back at Mac.

"Bye Macky." Was all he could manage to say, he could feel the hurt radiating from her without even looking in her eyes. He knew if he was hurting right now, she would be feeling it ten times worse. He had wanted to kiss her earlier today while sitting on the couch with her; he wanted to kiss her at the beach. He wasn't sure what would happen between them now, this girl wasn't his girlfriend but she wasn't exactly a buddy of his either, and he knew she could tell.

"Bye, Dick." She said softly, but the tone of her voice was harsh. She should have known better not to trust another boy in that family. Her rage burned deeply inside of her, but she wasn't going to let him know how much this bothered her. It was true, they weren't together, but she was feeling something for him deep within the pit of her stomach. This pain that she felt right now as he closed the door behind him wasn't something that she had ate earlier, it was someone who just walked out of the room. It felt like that someone had just walked out of her life.


	6. Wasting Your Time

**A/N: You guys completely shocked me with the amount of reviews I recieved on my last chapter. You'll see that Mac won't stay heartbroken forever, I promise you guys that. I went through some personal issues and kind of drug Mac through the mud with me, but I think in the end it works out better this way. Okay! Enough babbling, thanks for your continuing love for this story! I've wrote Ch 7 and am halfway through with 8, so with enough reviews and views themselves, the next chapters will be up soon! Happy Reading!**

Mac was tempted to sleep in Dick's room tonight, knowing him; his dates didn't usually end until the morning, but she decided against it. The couch wasn't horribly uncomfortable and she knew she'd wake up early with the extreme sunlight glaring at her through the windows in the morning. The sounds of a deep snore were coming from Logan's room, she decided to head over towards his room to see if Veronica was sleeping. She knew her and Veronica weren't good with girl talk, but she'd known her for 4 years, she had to be able to give her just a little advice if anything.

She slowly opened the door and found Veronica face down underneath her two pillows on her side of the bed; she smiled to herself and decided to ask before assuming.

"You awake Veronica?" She asked quietly, afraid to wake Logan as he was sleeping off his night of partying.

"You really think I'd be asleep?" She asked back, her voice muffled by the mattress and pillows surrounding her. She pulled the pillows off the top of her head and tossed them to the side of the bed. "Everything okay?" She said as if she could read the distress on Mac's face. It then occurred to Mac that she didn't exactly know what to talk to her about or how to bring anything about Dick up.

"Uhm, things have been better." Mac said, as she turned away from her and headed to the couch in the living room. She mindlessly turned on the television and an infomercial greeted her unpleasantly.

"Well you can talk to me about it." Veronica offered as she sat down next to her friend, glancing at her face it seemed Mac wasn't doing so well, but she couldn't pinpoint the reason.

"Honestly, I'm not even sure what I feel right now or how to talk about it." Mac said in a frustrated tone. She'd love nothing more than to tell Veronica that she might have a feeling or two for Dick, but with Veronica's hatred of him and only putting up with him because her honey happened to live with him didn't help anything. Veronica smirked; she could tell by her frustration that this had to do with a boy. Years of reading people for a living, she could spot that look and the frustration a mile away.

"So, what's his name?" Veronica asked calmly as she picked up the remote and absentmindedly flipped through the channels. Mac quickly turned her head towards Veronica.

"You know, I always forget about that third eye." Mac joked lightly, hoping Veronica would just give her some trivial advice about boys in general, and not pry anymore. She knew that wasn't going to happen, this was Veronica Mars we were talking about. She'd probe the Pope if he knew anything about the case she was trying to figure out.

"Seriously Mac, this guy has you seriously worked up. Does he go to Hearst?" Veronica sat back against the couch, grinning in self satisfaction. There was no way that Mac was going to get away without dropping a few clues about her mystery suitor. Mac was taken aback, when was the last time anybody had even seen Dick at class? Well, he lived on the Hearst campus for a while before he decided to ditch the frat house for his own personal party pad at Logan's.

"I guess you could say that." Mac answered, knowing that that wasn't a good enough answer for Veronica. More questions were bound to be asked, but that was the best answer she could think of at the time. Veronica's eyes shot open as if she had just figured out that Professor Plum committed the crime in the Billiard Room with the candlestick.

"Weevil! He's the janitor. I always thought you two would be kinda cute together." Veronica shrugged and nudged her awe-struck friend lightly in the ribs.

"You couldn't be more wrong." Mac stated blatantly, and continued. "I honestly always thought you and him had something going, obviously before you moved in with Logan that is." Mac shrugged back at her friend, whose jaw might've just hit the floor.

"Me and Weevil? You can't be serious." She joked as she stood up from the couch and went to the fridge to retrieve a couple of bottles of water, she handed one to Mac and opened one up for herself. "Okay, round two." She said, then continued, "Is he in like any organizations at school?" She sipped from her water bottle after asking.

"If you count a fraternity, I suppose so." Mac took a swig from her own bottle, and noticed a slight look of surprise of Veronica's face. "Why do you seem surprised?" She asked curiously.

"I just never pictured you getting it on with a frat guy." Veronica said bluntly.

"Who said I was getting it on with this guy?" Mac felt her cheeks redden at the thought of getting that close to Dick, but she shook the thoughts from her head and back to her friend.

"Ah, so you haven't yet but you want to." Veronica said playfully, noticing the crimson color creep onto Mac's cheek and dissipate slowly. Mac was growing tired of this guessing game, she sighed heavily and instantly regretted what she let slip from her mouth.

"It's Dick." She said and began drinking heavily from the bottle of water, as if it were a beer, or as if it would erase the words that just fell from her lips. Veronica screwed the lid back on her bottle, her face was void of emotion, and Mac wasn't sure how she was going to react.

"You realize his IQ is still in the single digits right?" Veronica joked, hoping not to offend her friend, but the thought of the two of them together was completely out of reality for her, especially after the catastrophe of dating one Casablancas brother.

"I still don't understand why everyone thinks I have to date someone with a three digit IQ for them to mean something to me. I mean yes, Cassidy was smart." She paused, thinking back to the good times they had together and she let a small smile creep upon her face before continuing. "Bronson was more in love with animals and saving them then he was with me, and Max cheated on me and broke my heart." Mac shrugged before turning to her friend, whose face was now overcome with sadness. "Maybe these smart guys I keep dating are the wrong kinds of guys to date you know? Maybe it's not all about intelligence or how fast they can hack into a website. It might just be how they treat me." She said very seriously.

"But Dick is…Dick. I don't see how that can intrigue you so much." Veronica said softly, she didn't want to hurt her but she wanted to figure out what it was that she saw in him. The self proclaimed ass expert.

"He's different when we are together, it's like I can tell him anything without judgment, without him knowing it all and knowing what's better for me. It feels like finally I can express how I feel to someone without them thinking less of me." She sighed afterwards and stared at the empty water bottle on the coffee table. She looked towards Veronica. "And he just went out on a date with a full bodied blonde girl, and by full bodied I don't mean her hair." She quipped. Veronica smirked, knowing that even in the middle of something like this, Mac managed to stay Mac.

"Like I said, Dick is Dick." It was all Veronica could say right now, it hurt her to see her friend reeling after this, but she didn't want to see her anymore crushed once she let Dick into her life, and he did the same things. "Just, don't get your hopes up Mac-Attack, its Dick we are talking about here. He's hurt girl after girl after their one night stands, and maybe you should try to move on. You know, Weevil is single." She smiled brightly, and was comforted to see that Mac did as well.

"Thanks for the advice V. It does mean a lot; I'm just still so new to even having these feelings again after Max. Let's keep this to ourselves if you wouldn't mind. Logan is too close to Dick, and if he knew I think he might clue Dick in and I'm just not ready for that." Mac said while Veronica nodded.

"Don't worry; your secret is safe with me." She said as she yawned. "I don't think it'll get any less quiet in there, so I may as well attempt to sleep before it gets any louder." Veronica joked, as she stood and headed towards Logan's bedroom. Mac curled herself up into the couch and found a comfortable position before she nodded off to sleep.

Dick was sitting on an unfamiliar couch and Kendra was straddling him, placing kisses on his lips repeatedly. She began to get frustrated when he didn't kiss her back, and seemed to be more enthralled with the infomercial on TV.

"Dick do you want me or not? I don't like wasting my time." She said as she sat back on his legs and crossed her arms in front of her. He finally unglued his eyes from the TV set and looked up at her. She was hot. Long blonde hair came down right past her breasts, her figure was flawless, her skin was tanned and her eyes were a light green with a slight tint of copper shining through. Her breasts had been augmented to a full C maybe even a small D cup, and her legs were long and slender. He couldn't believe he was sitting underneath a woman like her, and he really couldn't believe that all while she was placing tender kisses on his lips, he was thinking of the pale, brunette girl that was back at his hotel room.

"I think you're wasting your time here." He said as he looked into her eyes. She huffed and got up off of him.

"If you think the freak back at your apartment will go anywhere near you after taking me out, you're more stupid than you look." She walked sexily away from him and headed to the door. "Get out." She said plainly, and pointed towards the open doorway. He stood up and headed towards the door; he stopped right before exiting her apartment, and turned towards her.

"She's not a freak." He said bluntly, as she rolled her eyes and slammed the door behind him. He shifted uncomfortably, realizing that she had a point. Mac would be extremely disappointed tomorrow, and he knew it. He had to figure out some way of fixing this, but nothing was coming to mind. As he hailed a cab down and was on his way back to the room, he was brainstorming. He wondered to himself if Mac would still be awake by the time he strolled back into the room, and if she was how was she going to react to him? He stepped out of the cab after paying his fee, and hurried up to the suite, hoping to catch her sleeping. He slid the keycard through and quietly opened the door, and saw a body balled up on the couch, and she was shivering.

He placed the keycard down on the table in front of him and went into his bedroom to retrieve the comforter that was lying messily on his bed. He shook it and placed it around her; he smiled as she stretched out and pulled the blanket up close to her chin. He tilted his head and watched her sleep peacefully for a little while before reaching out and rubbing her shoulder lightly before he stood. He walked towards his room and looked back at her and kneeled beside the couch, and brushed a couple strands of hair behind her ear and gently kissed her cheek.

"You have the strangest hold on me Macky." He whispered sweetly into her ear before leaving the room and curling up in his own bed to fall asleep.


	7. No Funny Business, Mister

**A/N: Sorry! Didn't get much feedback on my last chapter, so I made you guys wait longer. Well here it is! Chapter 7! Chapter 8 is written, and I'm working on 9 right now. This is PROBABLY the chapter that 99% of the reviewers have been waiting for! Sorry it took so long to get to this point, but I had to have them build a foundation of some sort of friendship before well, going any further. I don't work much this week, so hopefully 8 && 9 will be up by Saturday! Yes, I think I'd like that! So stop reading this already! Read the chapter :P Reviews are more than welcome 3**

It had been two days since Dick had taken Kendra out on a failed booty call attempt. Mac had made herself scarce around the hotel room, so Dick had yet to tell her how he was feeling, and explain to her what exactly happened that night. Veronica and Mac had left sometime that morning, neither Logan nor Dick were sure when because when they woke up to a woman free room, they decided to hit the beach with their surf boards.

"What's been up with you lately Dick?" Logan asked, as he lifted his board into the bed of Dick's truck.

"Man, ever since that date with Kendra my head's been all messed up." Dick shook his head at the thought of the hot blonde sitting on his lap, and he was wishing it was the beautiful brunette he currently lived with. Logan smiled widely at what Dick had said.

"Kendra's really got you going doesn't she?" Logan said as he opened the door to the truck, and closed it behind him, Dick did the same.

"It isn't her." Dick said quickly, as she shoved the keys into the ignition and peeled out loudly. This wasn't the time or place to have this conversation, especially not with the guy who was dating Mac's best friend. He knew for a fact he wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut.

"So when are you going to tell Mac about this?" Logan asked seriously, he didn't look over towards Dick, but he knew by the sound of his voice that he had gotten it right.

"What uhm would I have to tell her about dude?" Dick tried his best to keep calm, but it seemed like his friend had seen through it, but it was hard for him to stay calm whenever her name was mentioned.

"I don't know, maybe the fact that you're into her?" Logan questioned, and then glanced over to see Dick's mouth hang open, and him search for words. "You don't have to say anything to me, its Mac that you need to say something to."

"She's smart, she will know better than to get involved with someone like me." Dick said shamefully, looking back on his tattered past with girls, he'd gotten drunk at so many parties that he couldn't even remember half of the girls' names that he'd been with. He treated Madison like a dog, granted; she treated him no better than that.

"I can't argue with that." Logan shrugged, he figured Mac would be appalled at the idea of being with Dick, but he never knew for sure, girls changed their minds like they changed clothing; in his opinion.

They arrived to the beach soon after that, and they remained wordless; even while unpacking their surf boards from the back of the truck. Logan was wondering if Veronica was still upset about that stupid night at the movie theatre, and Dick had not stopped thinking about how badly he had screwed up his chances with Mac by taking Kendra out. They lay down on their boards and paddled their way out to the waves. They surfed, they fell, they had a good time and for those few hours, the waves understood how they were feeling, and the ocean water listened to their thoughts.

"Can you please tell me how you got me in here?" Mac looked around the room she was sitting in. It was some hair and nail place, and she knew that even Veronica didn't want to be here.

"Because we are girls, and this is what girls do." Veronica said unconvincingly.

"Someone works here that will help you in a case right?" Mac questioned as Veronica sighed.

"Yes, but I swear we will hang out as soon as I'm finished." Veronica spoke quickly before running to the back of the building, and through a metal door. Mac rolled her eyes and sauntered over towards the window in the front of the building. The view from the building was comforting; the ocean was sprawled out in front of her, and the sounds of laughing children and waves tumbling against the shore greeted her ears. She glanced back at the door which Veronica had disappeared behind; she pulled out her cell and sent her a quick text.

"_Headin out to the beach, meet me there when ur done"_

She headed out the glass doors to the building and felt her pocket vibrate and pulled her phone back out.

"_kay :]" _It was from Veronica, Mac sighed loudly and continued her walk across the road in front of her, and soon felt the warm beach sand hit her toes through her flip flops, and continued walking towards the shoreline. Her eyes met with two guys with surfboards one seemed to be somewhat melancholy, and the other was trying to cheer him up. The guys were Dick and Logan, respectively.

She wrapped her arms around herself and turned away from them, hoping she was unrecognizable from behind, which seemed a bit true considering they continued chatting as they passed her and headed towards Dick's truck. She knew it was wrong, but she couldn't help herself as she listened to them talk.

"You gotta show her how much she means to you, I try to do that as often as I can with Veronica." Logan spoke.

"Yeah, and look how that turns out usually dude." Dick said as he rolled his eyes.

"Veronica is different, I know I'm going to spend the rest of my life with her, you barely know her. You need to talk to her man, let her know what happened."

"I doubt she will want anything to do with me, after the other night and how much I let her down, it seems impossible." Dick said softly, and Mac had just about heard enough. He was really that into Kendra that he'd go out of his way to make her know? It made her stomach flip a couple of times before she returned herself to their conversation.

"We can be out of the suite if you need it, if you really want to do something nice for her." Logan shrugged as he put his board in the back of his truck.

"That would help; I'll let you know when I plan the night of all nights." Dick smiled happily, thinking that this was the perfect way to regain her trust.

Mac left heartbroken as the truck pulled out of its parking spot, she headed down to the waterfront. The waves crashed against her ankles, and the water made the sand stick to her toes and she didn't mind. It seemed as if she were there for hours upon end, before Veronica showed up.

"Sorry about that." Veronica said as she hurriedly walked towards Mac. "He was tougher to get information out of then I thought." She spoke a little out of breath, and glanced and to see Mac's eyes darting at the sun in the middle of the sky.

"He's planning something for her." Mac said a little too soft, Veronica picked up on it instantly and pulled her friend in for another awkward, yet reassuring hug of friendship.

"I guarantee anything that he has planned for her, will be lame. Rap music blaring in the background, porno on the television, lights dimmed but a little overly dimmed so he trips over something, and probably Chinese takeout." She said as she broke the embrace, and Mac seemed a bit happier.

"Dick isn't worth getting this upset about, and I know that; at least my brain does. My heart is telling me to feel hurt and betrayed and all sorts of things that I shouldn't." She looked Veronica in the eyes. "He's not my boyfriend; I don't even think we are good friends but we almost kissed and…" Mac was cut off.

"You almost kissed him?" Veronica said with obvious enthusiasm. Mac looked away from her; it was indeed a great memory to relive, just not in this moment.

"Yeah, the day Logan was sent to jail? We were on the couch, and I asked if he was going to try to kiss me; I was obviously joking. He said he wasn't going to try, but he was just going to do it." Mac said, as the almost kiss replayed over and over in the back of her mind. Veronica did her classic head tilt, but a bright smile was dancing across her face.

"Mac, maybe there is something to Dick that I don't see. I know he just got done screwing you over, and he's planning on having this romantic night with this girl, but maybe it's because you've been avoiding him since he left with the girl. Did you ever let him explain?" Veronica asked, she was in shock that she was standing here almost backing up Dick's actions, but not in the years upon years did she know him to be one that would be so aggressively fighting for a girl.

"No, I haven't even been able to look at him without me wanting to tear his limbs off." Mac said, not thoroughly sarcastic which bothered Veronica a tad bit, but she let it slide.

"Let's get home, seriously and then I'll go in Logan's room so that you two can talk, I think that is what you two need to do more than anything right now." Veronica spoke and rubbed her friends' shoulder, as she walked towards the spa she had come from. They got into Veronica's Saturn and pulled out towards the Neptune Grande.

They arrived to the room in just under 15 minutes and leaned against the door to see if their male roommates had made it home, they had and they were playing some kind of game on the Xbox that stood in front of the TV. Veronica opened the door quickly.

"Honey, I'm home!" Veronica greeted Logan, as he dropped his controller and kissed her forehead.

"So is the ever elusive Cindy MacKenzie." Logan stated, as he grabbed Veronica by the hand, and she led him towards the bedroom, they shut the doors behind them leaving a very quiet Dick and Mac. She sat beside him on the couch, and picked up the controller that was once Logan's and she clicked the start button. Dick hid his surprised grin, and turned his head towards the TV. After thrashing Dick at his own game 4 or 5 times, she wore a self satisfied grin on her face and turned towards Dick whose head was in his hands.

"Bet you never saw that coming." Mac said with her self confidence at its highest. Dick turned towards her.

"You must be the devil; smart, funny and beautiful. Unbelievable." He spoke very clearly. Mac shook her head and stood up quickly.

"You don't get to say things like that Dick." Mac realized her self confidence had failed. Those were words to her ears 3 days ago. Before Kendra, she would have given anything to hear those words said by him, and about her.

"Mac, I mean those things I say. I'm stupid, I took Kendra out and I let her go. It was so easy, because all I could think of was coming back here and trying to work things out with us." Dick said defensively. He was happy that he didn't have to lie about what had happened that night.

"I heard everything you said at the beach today; you can't fool me that easy." Mac said harshly, realizing that she just admitted to him that she was eavesdropping.

"I thought that you might like it." Dick shrugged, Mac wasn't an easy girl to reason with at this point.

"Why in the world would I like you bringing her over here to show you how much you care?" Mac's voice was raised, and she was shaking at the anger she felt inside her.

"Her? Bringing her over here? After I just told you I ditched her last night because I kept thinking about you? You know Macky; I thought you were smarter than that." Dick shook his head.

"Yeah, you're right. Insult my intelligence after you almost kiss me and then blow me off." Mac said a little lighter this time as she turned her back to him.

"Mac it was for you." Dick said, realizing he had thrown his feelings out there and also realizing that he could possibly be hit for this. Hit in places that shouldn't see that type of brute force. She turned to him, and tried to read his face.

"Me?" She asked softly, as she inched towards him. Inside her heart, she suspected that this might be a trick or a setup of some sort, but she wanted with all of her heart that it wasn't. He came up close to her and took her hands in his.

"You have a hold on me Mac, with you things are good. You're awesome, why would I want to find someone else when I have you right here, in my hotel room?" He cocked his head, and saw a ghost of a smile crawl across Mac's face.

"I'm sorry about getting all girly about this, I just got freaked when I thought there was something here, and it seemed like you didn't." Mac apologized, and felt Dicks thumb graze the skin on her hand. He smiled and looked into the grey eyes that he'd missed so much.

"There is something here Macky, I promise." Dick said as he raised his hands from hers and cupped her cheeks and pressed his lips against hers. Her arms found their way to his neck and she pulled him tightly to her, as if she didn't hang on that he would float away and this would all be a dream. Dick let his hands get lost in her lengthy brown hair and went a little crazy when he felt her tongue poke inside his mouth. He broke the kiss quite a while after it started, and held his forehead against hers and didn't open his eyes, neither did she.

"You still want the night of all nights?" Dick asked as his eyes slid open slowly, but never losing their gaze from hers. She felt her cheeks redden, and nodded.

"I think I'd like that." Mac spoke softly and pulled him in closer, and hugged him like he was the last person she'd hug in this world. He planted dozens of kisses on the top of her head, and she laughed lightly.

"I'm going to go to bed." He said as he didn't break her embrace, he just held her close.

"Are we like supposed to sleep together now?" Mac asked and felt a little embarrassed. She hadn't really lived with her boyfriend except for Max, and even then she wasn't staying in his dorm room for the summer.

"You can still have the couch, don't worry." Dick joked slightly. "But there is always a side of my bed with your name on it." He spoke sweetly, and kissed her again before waving slightly on the way to his bedroom. She sat down with a goofy smile on her face and stretched out on the couch. It was nice, this couch was nice and safe. She glanced over at the bedroom doors and sat back up and walked towards them. Being on the couch was safe, but being with Dick seemed safer. She knocked on the door before letting herself in. Dick was already curled up but he turned towards her and undid the blanket on the side where she was going to be.

"No funny business mister." Mac said playfully, granted she really wanted things to remain PG for a while, but with Dick it might be hard for her.

"I promise to be nice." Dick cocked his eyebrows, and patted the mattress beside him. She smiled and sat down slowly but was quickly being pulled back by two arms; she let out a small squeal. "I've been waiting for this since the day at the beach where I first tried to kiss you, I'm not letting you go." Dick said seriously as he pulled her close to him and covered her up with the blanket. He snuggled into the crook of her neck and they drifted off to sleep.


	8. I'm Madison Sinclair

**A/N: Sorry about not getting this up sooner! I had to rewrite a couple of parts I didn't like, and it took me a while because I had to pull a couple of extra shifts at work this week, plus my classes. BUT! The feedback I got on chapter 7 was absolutely AMAZING! Keep reading you guys, and I'll try to get chapter 9 up as soon as possible, but I tend to find things that aren't right and rewrite them, lol. I am NOT finished with chapter 9 at this point, I'm quite behind on chapters, but as soon as I get a complete day without work or class, I'll be sure to devote it to this upcoming chapter and finishing this story. Right now, I am thinking that this story may last till 20-25 chapters. Maybe more, but most likely not less. Well, enough rambling! Happy Reading!**

Mac rolled over and bumped into something hard, she quickly opened her eyes and realized it was a body; Dick's body. She smiled to herself and scooted herself closer to him. He was still sound asleep, she rubbed his upper arm lightly and kissed his nose. A smile spread across his face and she felt her face redden.

"I thought you were still asleep." Mac said in her defense.

"Nahh, just been hoping that this wasn't a dream is all." He smiled and pulled her into his chest. She wrapped her arms around him.

"I was hoping that too." She said softly as she nestled into his chest. There was a rushed a sudden knock on the wooden doors, both Mac and Dick jumped slightly from the knock.

"Dick have you seen Mac?!" Veronica's voice asked frantically. "She's not out here and neither is her cell, I'm worried." Veronica spoke again.

"Yeah I've seen her." Dick said flatly while Mac listened curiously.

"Is she okay? Where is she?" Veronica asked.

"She's right here." He said as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and kissed the side of her head.

"She's… in there?" Veronica said slightly seductively. Mac could see the bemused look on Veronica's face through the door it seemed.

"Good going Nancy Drew." Dick quipped and Mac felt a little disheartened, she wasn't sure why but she knew that there would never be a good friendship between her best friend and her new boyfriend.

"I just hope you used protection Mac-Attack." Veronica quipped through the door before opening it, and was immediately hit by a pillow thrown by Dick.

"I'm not that easy Veronica." Mac said matter-of-factly. She laughed when Veronica tossed the pillow back at Dick's head with full force, causing him to overreact and fall back on the pillow behind his head.

"I know, I'm kidding of course. So are you two for real?" Veronica said as she pointed at them.

"Want us to make out for you?" Dick asked with a wide grin on his face. Mac giggled to herself.

"Spare me; I'll just take your word for it." Veronica said as she turned to leave the room, but turned back before closing the door. "Don't you hurt her; I've wanted to taze your ass since I met you." Veronica smirked slyly and closed the doors.

Mac sighed heavily and fell back against the pillows behind her, her eyes slid shut. Dick glanced over at her and couldn't look away from her. The girl that he had tortured in high school, the girl who dated his brother, the girl who was the computer genius of their generation; was his new girlfriend. He smirked lightly at the thought, and he wished he would have gotten to know her sooner than he did. He reached towards her pale flesh, and grazed the side of her cheek. Her eyes blinked open, and she smiled a bright smile towards him.

"So what do you wanna do today?" Dick asked as he leaned down closer towards her and smothered her face in quick light kisses.

"Well what do you do usually do with your girlfriends." He stopped kissing her and cocked his eyebrows suggestively, and winked at her. She giggled slightly, "Okay, I should have known that." She said sarcastically.

"You know besides Madison, I haven't had a girlfriend." Dick looked either embarrassed or a little depressed as he said that.

"You mean I've had more boyfriends than you've had girlfriends?" Mac asked a little shocked, figuring that Dick was that kid on the playground in kindergarten that didn't believe in cooties and chased after the girls.

"I don't usually do relationships." Dick said honestly. He noticed Mac's face fall after what he said. "Madison kind of screwed me over with my view on chicks," He began, "And before I met you, I would just go out and have fun and whatever happened, happened." Dick said, hoping to correct his previous statement. The silence afterwards became a little overbearing for both of them. Dick wasn't sure what he had said wrong, and Mac didn't know what to think. Mac's phone began to ring; she glanced at it and saw that it was her mother.

"Hello." She answered hesitantly.

"Hi Cindy, how've you been?" Her mother seemed calm.

"Fine, have you guys made it to the east coast?" Mac asked although she didn't really care if they had or hadn't yet, small talk was always difficult for her.

"Yes, we have. New York is beautiful Cindy, I'm sure you're upset that you didn't get to come." She said I a cold bitter tone. Mac glanced over at Dick while she was talking.

"Nope, I'm glad I didn't go actually. Things are really good right now, and I'm not sure that they would have been so good if I had gone with you." Mac said as Dick smiled, and she returned it.

"I can't believe you could talk to your own mother like that Cindy." Her mother said exasperated.

"You can't use that line on me, it won't work." Mac said, before she could actually think about it. Her eyes widened as she waited for a response.

"What do you mean by that?" Her mother asked, her tone had returned to her normal motherly tone.

"Just that..." She began, she was searching for words to cover her slip up. Her "mom" didn't know she had any idea of what happened in the hospital just over 19 years ago. "…I'm too old for that line to work, I'm an adult now and I am capable of making my own decisions." She said frankly, and heard a sigh on the other end.

"Alright, I'll keep in touch. Have a good day sweetie." Her mom spoke softly, before disconnecting the call. Mac took the phone away from her ear and put it on the end table. Dick was looking at her intently, Mac's face dropped to the floor. Once again, she spoke before thinking.

"I'm Madison Sinclair." She said very seriously, although Dick began to laugh slightly.

"And I'm Hugh Hefner." He laughed as he kissed her cheek, she tensed beneath his touch. Her eyes never faltered from the gaze she had on the ground. Dick sat up and wrapped his arms around her. "What's going on?" He asked, placing his fingers underneath her chin and turned her head towards him.

"It's a long story, but in short…" She began as she drew her breath in quickly, "I was switched at birth with Madison Sinclair." She spoke, and Dick's mouth hung open, she averted her gaze from him, to the floor.

"That stuff doesn't happen Mac, its like, stuff you see on the sci-fi channel." Dick tried to reassure her.

"It did happen; both sets of parents were awarded one million dollars from the hospital." She started, "Madison's parents took the real Cindy MacKenzie home, and my parents took the real Madison Sinclair home." She spoke softly. This was extremely difficult for her, and she didn't know why but she felt like Dick may not feel the same about her afterwards.

"So, the bitch I wasted 4 years of my life on, would have been you?" Dick asked, he wasn't quite sure how to handle this bit of news. It made him feel a little odd that he'd dated both versions of both of these girls, and he wondered what it would have been like to be in a world where Mac was Madison and Madison was Mac.

"I suppose it would have." Mac said shyly, hesitantly waiting for his reaction.

"This is all kinds of messed up Macky." Dick said as he shook his head and glanced over at her. "But, I will say I'm happy it worked out this way." He smiled softly, and she sighed with relief.

"You and Veronica are the only people who know right now, Beaver knew too. Veronica helped me figure this out, I always thought that I was adopted, but this never even crossed my mind." Mac said, as she thought about a couple of times she'd actually agreed with her mom or dad.

"Just be thankful you were raised right, even if it wasn't by the right parents. You're an awesome chick, and whether you're Madison or Mac, I still can't stop thinking about you." Dick winked at her, and grabbed her hand and headed out to the living room where Veronica and Logan sat.

"Ahh the honeymoon phase. You ever miss it sugarpuss?" Logan cooed at the sight of Mac and Dick hand in hand. Veronica playfully punched him in the upper arm as Dick and Mac scooted beside them on the couch.

"So what are you two lovebirds up to today?" Veronica teased as she snuggled back into the crook of Logan's arm.

"Not sure yet, you two have any kind of plans?" Mac asked as Dick wrapped his arm around Mac's shoulder and pulled her close.

"More than likely watching movies and hanging around." Veronica shrugged as she skimmed through the channels on TV.

"Let's do something then." Dick motioned, hoping to get the four of them out of the hotel room.

"Have any bright ideas?" Veronica asked curiously, yet with a slight tinge of bitterness.

"Well how about we hit up a park or something." Dick offered, hoping that they would be able to get out of the room for a little while. Mac nodded in agreement as did Veronica and Logan.

"Cool, I'm going to get into some different clothes, and then we will leave." Mac said as she stood up from the couch and Dick lightly patted her butt as she walked away.

"Some things about you never change." Veronica shook her head as she stood up and was patted on the butt as well. Dick was giggling hysterically, and Logan's eyes were filled with anger. "You really want to mess with the girl with the taser? Do you?" Dick calmed down and Logan smiled at Veronica's way of handling herself.

"Can you guys maybe go to a late movie or something after the park? I kind of have something planned." Dick smiled sweetly.

"The night of all nights is tonight?" Logan asked with a certain excitement dripping from his lips.

"Yes it is man, and I don't want anything to go wrong." Dick said and noticed that Veronica wasn't enthused. He slid from the couch and perched himself on his knees and pleaded in front of her. "Please Ronnie? Let me have just one night, I just need tonight to be perfect, Mac's awesome and I want to do something nice for her. I promise she won't end up raped, dead, or worse." Dick said as he pouted his bottom lip.

Veronica sighed and nodded slightly. "Fine, but if she is any of those things by the end of tonight, you will suffer much much worse." Veronica smiled slyly as she and Logan headed to their room to change presumably.

Mac soon reentered the room and joined Dick on the couch.

"Did they leave already?" She questioned as she threw her hair back into a ponytail.

"Nah, they are either changing or getting in a quickie before we go." Dick smirked, and Mac smiled. She felt a strange urge to hug him and hold onto him, she wasn't one to often make the first move but she realized she needed to. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him softly.

"I'm really happy I didn't go to New York." Mac said reassuringly.

"I'm really happy I didn't go to South America." Dick said as he placed another solid, sweet kiss on her lips. "Today is going to be a really good day babe." He said and winked cheerfully.

"I get to spend all day with my best friend and my boyfriend, what more could a girl want?" She joked.

"Just you wait, you'll never forget today. I promise you that." Dick said as he nuzzled into her shoulder and kissed the side of her neck gently, which sent chills down her spine. Her heart was thumping loudly inside her chest, and she felt as if it was pounding against Dick's chest as well. These feelings weren't foreign, but they indeed were unexpected. It wasn't love, it may not even be close; but whatever it was she didn't want to lose it.


	9. AUTHOR'S NOTEUPDATE

Author's Note

God Guys, I'm SORRY! I've been extremely busy with work and school and trying to have a life outside it all! Alright so this chapter is giving me a little bit of hell and I can't figure out where to go with it. Today is the 21st, and I promise that by tomorrow night Chapter 9 WILL be up and running. I'd like for it to be up tonight, but I'm not entirely sure if that will happen. Thanks to everyone who reviewed this. 60 reviews is just, unbelievable. You guys are definitely keeping this story going. Yes, chapter 9 is the "Night of all Nights" but, let's just say I can't figure out the where when how etc. LoL Sorry for keeping you guys waiting, and sorry for posting this instead of Chapter 9, I just wanted everyone to know that this story IS continuing and I haven't abandoned it! Thanks for still reading it guys, I promise you this story will be worth it.


	10. Night of All Nights

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who's read and reviewed the latest chapter! You guys SHATTERED my goal of having 50 reviews by chapter 10, I now have 60 and am still in shock about it! You guys rock!I got a new idea for this fanfiction that might lengthen the story by quite a few chapters. I've read very few fanfictions that have had more than 25-30 chapters that kept me interested in the story. Keep reading to see that this story will turn into the Veronica Mars that you love and miss on TV, it's not all about LoVe and MaDi, this one WILL have mysteries, I'm just waiting for that one moment to introduce them. Happy Reading!**

**A/N: Sorry about keeping you guys waiting this long! I hate doing this, but I just couldn't figure out how to start or end this chapter it seemed like. BUT I think I did a pretty good job here, and I think you'll find it a bit amusing, as well as believable. Alright enough of me talking, you've waited long enough for this chapter, so here it is :]**

The group piled into Logan's SUV and headed towards Dog Beach. Dick felt his heart beat through his chest. Why had he promised her the night of all nights? He didn't know what to do. There was the typical Dick way, and then the typical every other guy way. Mac wasn't like every other girl, so he didn't think the typical every other guy way would work with her, but he didn't agree with his own way either. His head began to hurt from the pressure that he put on himself to give her the best night of her life.

"Awfully quiet there Dick." Logan joked, glancing in the rearview mirror he could tell that his friend was under some stress. Mac looked over at him, and noticed his fingertips on his temples, trying to massage the stress and pain away.

"I'm fine dude, just have a killer headache." He said as smoothly as he could, when in reality he wanted everything to be completely perfect, but he didn't know how to even start it. Mac pulled a bottle of Tylenol out of her purse and handed it to Dick.

"Can't have your head hurting on the night of all nights." Mac smiled brightly. He knew she was excited, he could tell that she genuinely cared about him, and it made his heart flutter. He smiled back and graciously accepted the medication.

"So you're going to take her out to Dog Beach on the night of all nights?" Veronica spoke a bit sarcastically, Mac felt her face redden and didn't even need to look at Dick's to see that his had too.

"This place has a lot of meaning to him; maybe it's not about the money spent." Mac stuck up for Dick, a small smile spread across his face. Veronica couldn't help but smile herself, seeing them together wasn't as awkward as she thought it might be, and as much as she disliked Dick, maybe there was a sweet side that was reserved for Mac.

Dick brought his head down into his hands and pushed his plan into action. "Dude, Logan, I'm going to catch a cab back to the hotel. I can't seem to shake this headache." Dick said as his eyes closed heavily.

"Sorry man, want us to come back with you?" Logan offered, clueless to Dick's plan.

"Nahh, you guys stay here. Mac, I'm sorry about this. We will have the perfect night, just not tonight." Dick said and gave her a half smile before exiting the car and calling a cab company.

Mac followed him. "Want me to come with you? It's cool if you do, because all I'm going to see here are them making out." Mac said rather monotonously.

"I'll be fine, and just hit them in the back of the head when they start to do that crap. Don't let me ruin your night." He smiled again before planting a sweet a gentle kiss on her forehead. She smiled slightly, as she waited with him for his cab to come. Just about 15 minutes later the cab pulled up and she waited for him to be seated in the back of the cab, and waved as it pulled off into the distance. She walked over to Logan and Veronica who were hand in hand near the water's edge.

"Well this sucks." Mac shrugged as she kicked a lone rock into the ocean with her foot.

"I think it'd suck worse if he was miserable all day instead. Maybe this way he will feel better tomorrow and you guys can do something alone, you know?" Veronica offered, and tried to make her friend feel a little better about the situation. Mac nodded and gave a half hearted smile.

Logan's phone went off in his pocket, and he glanced down at it. "Dick" was written across the screen. "I'll be right over there, have your girl talk time." Logan winked as Veronica smirked.

"Miraculous recovery?" Logan answered.

"Guess you could say something like that dude. I didn't have any kind of headache, I just needed to get home and get the place ready for tonight." Logan could hear the ear to ear grin Dick was sporting.

"Very smooth." Logan spoke.

"So I need you and Ronnie to create some sort of distraction, just tell her… ." Dick paused and was trying to think of something for him to say to her.

"I got it Dick. You want Mac home in about 20 minutes or so?" Logan asked.

"Sounds good, thanks bro." Dick said as he flipped his phone and began to set up the suite. Logan moseyed back over to where Mac and Veronica were standing.

"Who was that?" Veronica asked curiously. Logan seemed to be texting and ignoring her question. Her brow furrowed. "Or not." She said a bit harshly. Mac shifted her weight uncomfortably; the tension between them always made it seem like there was a fight on the horizon. He flipped his phone closed and nodded in Veronica's direction.

"Nobody important." He shrugged it off and saw the curiosity flare in Veronica's eyes. Her mouth was ajar and was without a doubt about ready to yell at him, but paused when he pocket vibrated and she pulled out her phone and slid it open.

"_Tht was Dick, he's fine, faked the headache. Setting up the suite for Mac and him. We "forgot" about going to your dad's house for dinner ;]"_ Veronica sighed and smiled to herself and realized she was right about Dick earlier, there was something inside him that could genuinely care for a person. "So what do you guys want to do for the rest of the night?" Veronica asked as both Mac and Logan shrugged. They began walking towards the direction of the parking lot while letting the waves lap against their ankles. Veronica paused a bit overdramatically, and turned Logan towards her.

"Oh my god!" Veronica sad as she frantically pulled out her cell and checked the time. Mac stopped walking and turned towards her.

"Got places to be babe?" Logan asked with fake curiosity.

"More like we have places to be." She showed him her phone and pointed to the time. Logan still wasn't understanding it seems. "My dad called me yesterday and wanted us to come over for dinner. You know, to make sure I wasn't pregnant, or dead, or whatever." Veronica shrugged.

"Oh, you're right. What time is it?" Logan asked.

"Well, it's going on 3 and we were supposed to be there at 3." Veronica spoke. Logan and Veronica both turned to Mac. "I'm so sorry about this." Veronica apologized.

"It's okay actually, it'd be nice to go back to the suite anyway and make sure Dick's fine." Mac said, with a genuine smile on her face this time.

"Alright, thanks for understanding. We will drop you off at the suite and then we're off for a fun filled night." Veronica spoke and looked up at Logan, whom rolled his eyes and smirked. They got into Logan's car and headed for the Neptune Grande. As they were pulling into the parking lot, Logan looked back and watched Mac get out of the car and pulled out his cell phone.

Dick was pacing back and forth in the living area of the suite. Tonight had to go well, there were no if's and's or but's about it. His pocket vibrated and he opened the phone quickly.

"_the eagle has landed."_ Was all the text said, and he knew what Logan had meant by it. Mac was here inside the hotel, and in just a few moments she would come through the door and see the dimly lit room, the coffee table with a white tablecloth wrapped around it for a make shift table. The long candles in the center lit and burning, the dozen white roses beside the candles and a vegan dinner prepared on it. He opted for water instead of wine, no need getting the girl drunk when she's already yours, he thought. He heard the keycard slide through the reader in the door and looked towards it. His palms sweaty and his heart was racing as she entered. He smiled brightly as she stood at the door and was taking in the room. Her jaw fell to the floor and slowly turned into a wide smile.

"I'm guessing you didn't have a headache." Mac said as she stole Veronica's head tilt. She looked over towards the table and saw that both meals didn't contain meat, and she smiled brighter. "Giving up your carnivorous ways for the night?" Mac asked as she sauntered towards him.

"I had them change everything they made it with, I really hope you like it." He said as he ushered her to the table. It wasn't a very tall table, but it worked well with two pillows sat on each side of it. She sat down Indian style on one side of the table, and he did the same on the opposite. "I wasn't sure what kind of flowers you liked." Dick said, and felt his face redden. He wasn't sure why it was happening or why he cared so much about the flowers.

"I honestly don't know." Mac smiled. "I don't get them very often, so these are amazing." She said as she picked up her forked and dug into what seemed like a veggie stir fry with tofu. It was delicious, but she could see that her boyfriend didn't exactly agree with her. He chewed on a piece of tofu for what seemed like 5 minutes straight. Mac giggled.

"Not diggin the vegan lifestyle?" Mac joked, as she saw Dick grab a napkin and spit the tofu into it.

"Let's just say I won't rush to join PETA anytime soon." Dick said as he avoided the tofu and ate the vegetables around it. After their dinner was finished, they sat on the couch and he turned on the TV.

"What are we going to watch?" Mac asked as she looked into his eyes."

"Whatever you want to watch." Dick said as he reluctantly handed her the remote. He had done this before with his girlfriends and they always turned on the same thing. Some sort of sappy romance movie that tugs at your heart strings. He was fully prepared to watch The Notebook for the umpteenth time, but looked at the screen and saw that she had chosen Fight Club. His mouth hung open in amazement.

"You okay?" She asked, as she brought her feet underneath her and Dick wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"I'm in shock." Was all Dick managed to spit out.

"Why? Don't like Fight Club? We can change it, no biggie." She said as she reached towards the remote and Dick brought her hand back.

"You realize what this movie is about?" Dick asked, thinking that maybe she did this for him because he attempted to eat the food that she enjoyed.

"Dick, I've only seen it 20 plus times. It's addictive, makes me want to form an underground fight club." She shrugged and leaned back against his shoulder.

"I can't believe how perfect you are." He said seriously, and couldn't get his gaze away from her. She looked towards him and met his gaze. His blue eyes were extremely comforting, and she felt like she could look into them for hours. He pulled her closer and brought her into a deep kiss. His lips crashing on top of hers over and over. She opened her lips slightly and poked her tongue into his mouth, he accepted willingly and returned it to her. He laid her down underneath him and pressed his body against hers. His hands were wandering beneath her shoulders and up and down the sides of her body. Hers were wrapped tightly around his neck. His left hand slid slightly underneath her shirt and he felt her soft skin on his fingertips. There was no hiding his arousal, she felt it against her inner thigh and it made her body tighten. She pushed him off quickly and cupped a hand around her mouth. Dick grabbed his stomach and cupped his own mouth.

"Sorry I did that, but I felt really sick suddenly." Mac laughed it off, and felt her stomach flip.

"It's fine, I did too. Weird isn't it?" Dick spoke. They stared at each other's faces, flushed with arousal, and possibly flushed from this feeling inside their bodies. Before either of them knew it, they were both rushing for opposite bathrooms.

"I wonder how tonight went." Veronica said out loud as Logan and she returned from the movie they had seen.

"Honestly Ronnie, Dick hasn't been real smooth with girls. They probably ended up with food poisoning or something." They laughed lightly at the thought as they exited the car and headed up towards their room. Logan slid the keycard through the reader, and entered. The suite was still dimly lit, and Mac and Dick were nowhere to be found. Logan put his keycard on the end table, and grabbed Veronica by the waist. She smiled as he tightened his grip and placed kisses on her neck from behind.

"Looks like we have some time to ourselves too." Logan said playfully before he picked her up and put her on the couch. He jumped on her and immediately smothered her in hot, passionate kisses. His hand found her breast quickly and as he was placing kisses quickly down her neck and onto her chest, they heard a noise. His head popped up, as did Veronica's. The noise was coming from their bedroom, more specifically from their bathroom. It sounded like uncontrollable coughing and hacking, and it was a male's voice. Logan sat up and walked into his room and into the bathroom, without knocking, and was disgusted by the stench that was in the bathroom. Dick was curled up on the bathroom tile, his face was extremely pale.

"Are you okay man? What happened?" Logan said, as he closed the lip of the toilet avoiding whatever might have been inside.

"I think it was the food." Dick mumbled and grabbed his stomach in pure agony.

"What food?" Logan asked.

"The vegan food I got me and Mac for tonight, I think we have like food poisoning or something." Dick said as he laid his head back on the cool tile.

Logan couldn't help but smile at this point. In fact he was pretty sure he began to laugh. Dick was at that point screaming at him to "Get the hell out!" He did as he was told and headed back to the couch as Veronica was switching the channels on TV.

"Is he okay?" Veronica asked with concern in her voice.

"He um." Logan said as he stifled a laugh, and tried to continue his story. "He got Mac and him vegan food, which in turn gave them both food poisoning." Logan nodded as Veronica's jaw dropped, and she found herself stifling a giggle herself. It was horrible for them to laugh, but it wasn't at their friends' conditions, it was the fact that she had called something like this not even an hour prior to finding Dick curled up on the bathroom floor.

"Alright, let's try to be good friends now. I'll take care of Mac and you can handle Dick alright?" Veronica asked quickly.

"Alright, sounds good enough to me." Logan shrugged as he kissed her lightly on the lips, and leaned in towards her left ear and whispered "I love you." Veronica felt her stomach flutter at that, and pointed towards her eye, then her heart, and then to him. And then made a peace sign to signify "too". They headed off in different directions and new that tonight would be an extremely long and disgusting night for the both of them.


	11. The Mystery Begins

**A/N: Alright! I'm going to try to get back to updating regularly now that my job has decided to not give me a 6 day week this week :] As soon as I finished Chapter 9, I knew where I wanted to take this one. And I'm fairly sure this will make you reminisce Veronica Mars in all of it's glory. Yes, this is the chapter where the superbly lovey dovery fairytale turns into something much deeper. Much, Much deeper. Happy Reading!**

One week had passed since the night of all nights had indeed turned into the night of all nights, neither Mac nor Dick would ever forget that horrible night. Dick had been bringing her flowers every morning, and couldn't stop himself from apologizing about the tainted food. He felt guilty, and she was trying to reassure him that he couldn't have stopped what had happened.

Veronica and Logan seemed to be in relationship bliss since the night they went out to the movies to come back and find their friends lying on the bathroom floor, sick as dogs. After holding hair back, cleaning up vomit, and feeding their friends' medication; they didn't seem to have the energy to fight that night, or the morning after. Logan was also bringing Veronica flowers, if you consider paying Dick to buy flowers on his way out "bringing" them to her. On this particular morning, Dick came home to find both Logan and Veronica awake on the couch.

"Oh you brought her two dozen today?" Veronica said in a cute voice as she tilted her head to the side.

"I uhm…" He began and looked at Logan as he gave Dick a death glare. "Yes, today I did." Dick nodded his head as he headed off to his room which held a sleeping Mac at this point. Veronica was looking hard at her phone.

"Something wrong?" Logan asked as he placed a tender kiss on her cheek and looked down at her phone.

"It's just…" Veronica began and continued scrolling through her recent call list. "It's just, I can't remember the last time I talked to Wallace, and it's weird for him not to call me." Veronica spoke as she looked back to the last time Wallace made a call to her.

"Ronnie, you know, most people do go out on summer break. They don't sit around and live in sin with their significant others." Logan said as he nuzzled into the crook of her neck and began kissing her pale skin softly.

"Logan, not now." She said harshly and lightly pushed him away. Her eyes grew wide when she found the last date that he had called her from; her eyes were full of mystery. "May 18th." Veronica spoke quietly, as she glanced at the calendar to check today's date. "It's been 3 weeks since I've heard from him." She shook her head at the thought.

"The phone works both ways." Logan stated.

"I have been calling him, every so often. He decided he didn't want to go to Africa at the last minute when his mom and my dad got back together. Oh! His mom!" She exclaimed, and dialed her dad's cell phone number.

"Hey honey." Her dad said happily. He had just received a phone call from her yesterday, and he wasn't expecting another phone call for a couple of days or so.

"Hey Dad, could you give me Alicia's cell number?" She asked as she grabbed a pad of paper from the table in front of her and ushered Logan off to find a pen.

"I'm not sure if it's a good time for that Veronica. She's having a hard time getting a hold of Wallace, and a call from you might upset her." Her dad said.

"That's the thing; I think there might be something wrong." Veronica said seriously.

"Veronica, he went off to Miami with a couple of his friends for the summer. I'm sure everything is fine, college kids do these things. Don't answer their phone, move in with their boyfriends, not have enough time for their fathers." Her father suggested.

"Dad, this isn't about how I'm currently failing to be a perfect daughter, girlfriend or friend. This is about Wallace. I'm trying to improve my friend rating." Veronica pleaded.

"Alright, but the daughter rating comes next." Veronica mumbled an agreement and heard her dad shuffle through his phone.

"You still don't know her number Dad? Aren't you two inseparable?" Veronica asked with a hint of sarcasm.

"That's the reason honey; we're always together, no need to call someone when they are in the same house." Her dad answered reasonably, Veronica shuttered at the thought. "Alright it's 906-555-9834"

"Thanks Dad, I owe you one." Veronica said quickly.

"Yeah you do. Make it dinner, preferably steak, and you'll buy." Her dad spoke and chuckled.

"It's a deal; I'll talk to you later." Veronica agreed.

"Bye." Her dad spoke before ending the call.

"Did you figure anything out yet?" Logan asked curiously as they looked towards Dick's bedroom when they heard light giggling.

"Not yet, I'm going to call Alicia now though, maybe she's heard from Wallace within this week and I won't have this nagging feeling about the Castle." Veronica said, and Logan looked puzzled. She quickly dialed the number that was written in front of her and hoped for the best.

"Veronica?" Alicia asked with both question and worry in her voice.

"Yeah, have you heard from Wallace lately?" Veronica questioned.

"I have, it was about a week or so ago. Possibly a little longer, he said he and his friends were going to head back to California and he'd stop by your place when he got back. I've been trying to call his cell but nobody answers. It's on, but it keeps going to voicemail. I've talked with your Dad about the possibilities but he's so optimistic and reassures me that there is nothing wrong. Should I be worried?" Alicia asked Veronica. Both parties heard Veronica sigh.

"There might be, but it's a slim chance really." Veronica spoke; she was greeted with silence which urged her to continue. "Wallace was tapped for a secret society at Hearst. It's called the Castle. Its previous members include extremely powerful men in today's society. I'm sure they tapped him for his basketball and engineering skills, but then something happened. He was called to a meeting that was held at a secret place. They disrobed him and attached an electric collar to his neck. He was asked questions about his past including what happened with Rashard in Chicago. Every time he lied about something, another one of the members of the Castle was shocked through the collar." Veronica finished, and heard light sobbing on the other end.

"Are these the people that might have him?" Alicia asked. The thought of kidnapping brought a chill down Veronica's spine. She wished at this point that she had called him every day; she might have had the chance of figuring out where he was right now if she had.

"It's possible." She said softly, she would have liked to add on that she revealed the Castle's most infamous members to the Hearst newspaper. That in reality, this could be because of her. She let it slide for now, the truth would inevitably come out but this wasn't the time for it.

"Why would these people want to hurt him? He didn't do anything." Alicia seemed both upset and in outrage. Veronica guessed that this was where she would tell her everything.

"I was there to rescue Wallace once he escaped from the torture of the collars. I then did my own research into it and was led to someone's house. I took his hard drive and had my friend Mac get the password for it. I released intense information about a lot of very powerful men to a newspaper at Hearst. I'm sure the leaders of the Castle know that if they got Wallace they would eventually find me." Veronica felt a lump in the back of her throat; in the end it always seemed to be her own fault that things happen. Even if they weren't, its how she felt.

"Bad things follow you Veronica; did you have to bring my son into it?" Alicia asked with anger in her sad voice.

"I had no idea that this was going to happen Ms. Fennel; if I had I wouldn't have done anymore with the Castle, the last thing I want to see is your son, my best friend, hurt or anything worse." Veronica pleaded. She knew there wasn't a point once the click was heard and Alicia was no longer on the line. Veronica glanced over at Logan "This is bad, this could be really bad." Veronica stood up and began to pace the living area.

"This could all be in your head too, you have to eliminate every and all other possibility before jumping to a conclusion like this." Logan tried to reassure her, and realized it infuriated her.

"If Dick was missing would you worry?" Veronica half asked, half yelled.

"Not really." Logan shrugged his shoulders.

"You know what, this is my best friend. He's been there for me when you couldn't stand me and were busy bashing the headlights out of my car okay?" Veronica argued. Logan had to admit that she was right though, even after all the rumors of her and everything that he had heard, Wallace stuck around.

"Okay, I'm sorry." He began apologetically. "How are we going to find him?" Logan asked seriously. It made Veronica's rage level calm down a few notches.

"There is one person I always go to for things like this." She smiled and walked over towards Dick's door. "I sincerely hope neither of you are naked." She spoke before walking in, and found them cuddling and both mildly asleep.

"What's up V?" Mac asked as she rose from her position and was curious as to her friends rushed arrival.

"Wallace is missing." Veronica spoke quickly and straight to the point, and continued without giving Mac a chance to speak. "He is probably in California, but I have no idea where. His cell is on, but I don't have a tracker on it. There is only one way to do this, and it's to track the cell phone directly through the system inside it. I have a laptop and a computer know-it-all; feel like jumping back into the hacking thing Mac?" Veronica asked, and Mac nodded her head and smiled.

"Sure thing, but I'll need is number, his full name, and his date of birth." Mac said as she pulled herself from beneath the covers.

"I got all that, so that isn't a problem." Veronica said as the four of them headed out to the living area once again and Mac sat herself in front of the laptop. "Alright, his number is 906-555-7201, his full name is Wallace James Fennel and his date of birth is February 12th, 1988." Veronica spoke as Mac signed into the internet.

"What is his phone service?" Mac questioned.

"He uses Sprint." Mac nodded and logged into the Sprint website and tried to break into an administrator of the website, which would make it possible to track phone calls. Veronica felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and looked down at the Caller ID, she smiled instantly. "This is good." Veronica said before answering.

"Hey stranger, how've you been?" She asked happily into the receiver.

"Do look for him Veronica Mars." A digitally altered voice greeted her on the other end. She felt her spine light up with a tingling sensation before doing anything.

"Track this call immediately." Veronica spoke quietly away from the cell phone, and Mac began typing away. "I plan on it." Veronica spoke directly into the phone.

"We would love to meet the splendid woman who might have half of our ex-members put away for illegal doings before their graduation." The voice spoke again.

"For some of the things they did, I'm sure that they deserve it."

"Is that true? So you do know what most of the graduates have done before making themselves successful in the real world." The voice sounded angered.

"Yes, the rape, murder, perjury. I know it all. You have the wrong person in your custody; if you want to hurt anybody for their knowledge, hurt me." Mac, Dick and Logan both looked over at her in surprise. Logan wrapped an arm around her shoulder, trying to comfort her. She wriggled free and began pacing once again.

"Wallace knows as much as you do, it's better to have both of you here. I know you'll come looking for him, and I know you'll find him. You're a baby Private Investigator. I'm also quite sure you'll bring your father into this, but we will have that issue taken care of. I challenge you to bring the police, you'll fail. You aren't the only one with decent tracking equipments or a computer geek on their team." With that the line fell dead, and Veronica stared at the blinking duration of call.

"Veronica maybe this is something the police should handle." Mac began reasoning with her.

"Sometimes the police don't need to get involved right away." She turned her phone towards Mac, and Mac realized the phone was showing her an auditory file. She had a puzzled look on her face until a digitally altered voice came through Veronica's phone speakers.

"Need me to decode the voice?" Mac asked, as she remembered the voice decoding she had already done for her friend.

"Yes, as soon as you figure out where Wallace is located." Veronica said as she looked back down on her phone and began to send the file to her own e-mail. Mac looked down at the computer, and back up at Veronica before speaking.

"I figured out where he is, or at least where he was. The tracking dot is moving right now." She clicked on the location that was listed on her computer screen and enlarged it. Veronica's eyes widened at the name of the location. She couldn't believe how horrible this situation had become, and what kind of serious danger Wallace could be in.

"It's the River Styx." Veronica spoke with a softness in her voice, and Logan had his jaw hit the floor and began rubbing his temple at the once experience he had there.

**A/N2: Alright guys, I finished this and got it up as soon as possible, mainly for making you guys wait like a week before I updated. This chapter flowed really well for me, and I'm happy I got the mystery started. I'm actually going to go write Chapter 11 as this is posted, because I'm actually very interested in my own story! LoL. Thanks everyone for reading this fiction! The reviews keep coming in and that's the reason I keep writing. Thanks a lot guys. **


	12. The Castle Vs The Fitzpatricks

**A/N: SORRY AGAIN! I just finished my first term in college, and have been working crazy hours. There was one reviewer in particular that really gave me the push needed to finish this chapter, thank you luccybella for that! All of you guys have been wonderful about reviewing this fanfiction, you guys are the reason I'm still writing it. The updates may not be as quickly as they have been in the past, but this story WILL be updated, and it WILL be finished. I got a few days off this upcoming week, and don't work too much this weekend, so hopefully I'll get started on Chapter 12, and maybe finish it by Monday. Thanks for the lovely reviews guys! Happy Reading!**

"Veronica, if this is what I think it is there is no way you're going near there." Logan demanded. Veronica looked up at him with misty eyes.

"He's my best friend, I can't just stand back and watch this happen." Veronica said as she blinked a tear down her cheek.

"Anybody want to fill us in on anything?" Mac asked. Veronica shook her head trying to think through what she knew and what she didn't. Logan sighed before releasing any information.

"The River Styx is a bar where the Fitzpatricks hang out. The Fitzpatricks are not a fan of Veronica or of her father, but they are a fan of Vinnie Van Lowe." Logan began to speak.

"But what about the thing Veronica was talking about? The Castle, isn't that what you had me break into Jake Kane's computer for?" Mac questioned, Dick looked puzzled.

"Yeah, that's the same Castle, but I don't think that they are related. The Castle is a Hearst thing; the Fitzpatricks are a Neptune thing." Logan shrugged, and sat down next to Veronica and began to rub her shoulder trying to comfort her.

"Mac, that information on the Castle, I need that now. Do you still have it on your laptop? I need to compare some names." Veronica pushed herself away from Logan's touch, he seemed defeated.

"Yeah I still have it, do you know what guys Wallace is with right now? If they are part of the Castle, we maybe have more trouble on our hands than you thought, right?" Mac questioned as she booted up her laptop.

"Way more trouble, I'm going to call his mom again and ask her if he gave her any names of any guys he was with on his trip. If we have one name even, we might be able to do something." Veronica said as she flipped her phone from her pocket and walked out onto the balcony to make the phone call.

"This is ridiculous." Logan spat and then left to his bedroom and closed the wooden doors behind him. Veronica glanced back as she was still talking, and sighed heavily. This was the reason that Logan had ended things with her back in the beginning of their freshman year when she was heavily involved in the rape case. This was killing him and there wasn't anything that she could do about it.

"Are you as lost as I am?" Dick said as he glanced between the closed doors and Veronica out on the balcony.

"Probably a little less, I was involved in a very interesting piece of news published in the Hearst newspaper. I hacked my way into Jake Kane's hard drive." Mac said as she was typing away at her computer, trying to access the file that she had hidden deep within the computer's system.

"Jake Kane? Duncan's dad? Where does he fit in with this?" Dick asked, seeing Mac get visibly frustrated.

"Dick, there is a lot to explain in very little time, things just got worse." Her face fell as she read a name on the computer and rushed out towards the balcony. "Veronica, things just got a lot more difficult."

"Okay Ms. Fennel, I'll call you later when I find anything out." Veronica rushed her goodbye and approached Mac. "He's out with a couple of guys by the name of Peter Gilbey and Tommy Richen. There is a third guy but she couldn't remember his name." Veronica spoke.

"Was it Cormac?" Mac asked, as Veronica squinted her eyes and called Ms. Fennel back, she nodded a couple of times and hung the phone up.

"Yes it is Cormac, how did you guess?" Veronica asked as Mac turned her laptop. Veronica read through the list of the 2007 Castle members and her heart fell into her stomach.

"Cormac Fitzpatrick?" Veronica half questioned half stated.

"I guess the two do have something in common." Mac closed the screen and Veronica went back into the suite. Dick was sitting there obliviously watching TV. Veronica was pacing back and forth trying to come up with a solution. She stopped in front of the TV, which caused an exasperated sigh from Dick.

"Cindy Mackenzie." Veronica stated and titled her head slightly. "You're Irish." She continued.

"And that has what to do with this?" Mac asked.

"You have an almost in at the River Styx." Veronica begun, "You'll need to go inside and get some information."

"Me?" Mac said loudly. "I'm not you Veronica, I have no idea what you do. I think I'll stick with 'computers." Mac said softly.

"Mac, you're the only one here besides Dick that hasn't already had issues at the River Styx. You are friends with Wallace too; you're basically his only hope." Veronica said pleadingly.

"You know, it's really hard to say no when you lay a hefty guilt trip on top of your offer." Mac said before sighing and nodding her head.

"Alright, let's get you to the bar." Veronica said and smiled, as she grabbed her keys and then put them back down. "Could you drive Dick? They without a doubt know what my car looks like. I'll just hide out in the backseat and tell Mac what to do on the way there."

"This sounds like a bad idea Veronica, shouldn't you just call the Sheriff's office? Maybe they can use your information and do something with it. Where it doesn't involve my girlfriend going into a bar with dangerous felons." Dick stated.

"Dick, you know my dad lost the election thanks to Lamb." She quieted as she realized she spoke ill of the dead. "Vinnie won't do a thing about the Fitzpatricks, it's always been that way even when he was a Private Investigator." Veronica spoke.

"What happened when you went there?" Dick asked honestly.

"The same thing that happened to me won't happen to Mac, all she has to do is flaunt her last name and they will welcome her with open arms." Veronica evaded the question.

"Fine, but I still don't like this." Dick said as he got up from the couch and went to find his car keys. Mac approached Veronica slowly.

"What did happen to you when you went there? I think I should know considering it could happen to me." She spoke softly.

"Mac, it won't happen to you." Veronica smiled and headed towards the door.

"Veronica don't play this way, if my life is at risk shouldn't I at least know about it?" Mac's voice sounded angry, Veronica frowned slightly and walked back to her.

"I was held down on a pool table and barely got away without a face tattoo." Veronica said seriously.

"A face tattoo?" Mac asked with wide eyes.

"Logan showed up with a gun, it was the beginnings of him not agreeing with my career choice." Veronica sighed.

"So if that happens, will someone rush in with a gun? Or did you just get lucky?" Mac questioned.

"Honestly Mac, I got lucky." Veronica said as Dick emerged with keys in hand.

"Ready to hit up the bar?" Dick said and smiled, Mac had never been more thankful that he hadn't heard that conversation. She couldn't help thinking to herself if the same thing were to happen to her; at least maybe they'd use a color ink that brought out her eyes.

"Are you coming Logan?" Veronica shouted, so he would be able to hear. He opened the doors and shook his head.

"I can't go back there Veronica, not after what they almost did to you." Logan said quietly as he sat down on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table.

"Fine suit yourself." Veronica shrugged as she and Mac exited the hotel room, but Dick stayed behind.

"I can't do this." Dick said as he tossed his keys on the coffee table and the hit against Logan's toes.

"What? Why not?" Mac asked. She didn't figure she would be the one out of her and Veronica to complain, because of the risks, but she did.

"All this crap about what happened to Veronica. Unless one of you tells me what the hell happened, I can't do this. If you're going to get raped or shot, or both, I can't just drive you to your fate." Dick said thoughtfully, but it angered Mac. She finally understood how Veronica had felt since the day her and Logan had gotten together in high school. Mac walked over to him quickly, her face was full of many different emotions.

"Listen, my friend is in trouble. Big trouble. If I'm the only one here that can help him by getting some kind of information I'll do it." She said as she picked up his keys to his truck. "Regardless if I come home fine or with a goddamn tattoo on my face, I'm going." Mac said as she rushed out the door, and Veronica trailed behind her.

"What did she mean by that?" Dick asked with concern and worry in his voice.

"It almost happened to Veronica, the only reason it didn't is because I came in with a gun." Logan said, as she shuttered at the terrible memory.

"Veronica almost had her face tattooed?" Dick questioned.

"Yes, maybe if she had she wouldn't be pressuring her friend into doing something ten times more dangerous." Logan said, as Dick just sat there with a blank stare on his face.

"Dude, we need to do something. We need to do something now." Dick said as he stood. "I can't let Mac get hurt, I just can't let it happen."

"You wanna do something about it? Go for it, I can't get near that place without getting sick to my stomach." Logan said, as he reached down to the end table beside him and tossed Dick his keys. "Be careful man, those guys that hang out there aren't to be messed with." Logan spoke as Dick nodded, and before he realized it, he was in Logan's car using his GPS to figure out where the River Styx was located.

**A/N: Sorry it was so short, but I felt like I needed to get this chapter up right away so that you guys didn't think I abandoned you. The next one will be longer, I promise. Hopefully you guys liked it! Reviews are more than welcome!**


	13. Getting Away with Murder

**A/N: I honestly didn't really rush to write this chapter, most of the people who were reading it have stopped because I don't have as much time to update as I'd like. For those of you who are still sticking around, you guys are basically the best thing in the world. I have a full 4 hours to myself tonight, so I plan on finishing this chapter and maybe get a decent outline for the next one. I want this story to lengthen some more, and as I said I'd like it to enter the beginning of their sophomore year of college. Well, the long awaited chapter 12 is here! Read && Review guys :]**

The race to the River Styx was on at this point. Dick was flying past cars on the PCH hoping to at least reach Mac and Veronica before they entered the bar. 10 minutes of driving and it seemed as if it was a lost cause, he then decided just to head towards their location and hope for the best.

"And who are you pretty young thing?" A tattooed man approached Mac, whom was hiding her complete terror very well.

"I'm Cindy. Cindy MacKenzie." She finished as she flashed him a 100 watt smile, he smiled back and rapped her on the shoulder with his right arm, a pool stick in the left.

"Ah, may not be a Fitzpatrick, but you've got the luck of the Irish, Cindy." The man with mostly yellow teeth turned back to his pool game, and Mac turned towards the rest of the smoke filled room. She noticed that most of the residents here stuck to their beers and the pool tables. Most of the inhabitants of the bar were well over the age of 20, which wasn't a quality of the man she was looking for. She didn't pay attention as she toyed with her mini microphone attached to her bra clasp in the front, and she felt another tap on her shoulder. She jumped and let out a small squeal. The man behind her jumped back from her as well, equally startled by her reaction.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to scare you." He apologized. The man in front of her was quite attractive. Medium length brown hair with dark blue eyes, and stood at about 6 feet tall.

"Oh, no it's fine. My fault, I scare easy." Mac joked and smiled at him. She was thinking this might just be her man. "I'm Cindy." She introduced herself as she held out her hand.

"Hi Cindy, I'm Cormac." _Check and mate_, she thought to herself. "Would you like something to drink?" He offered as he gestured towards the bar.

"I actually didn't bring much money with me; I probably have enough for water." She shrugged as she pulled a couple of singles out of her pocket; Cormac raised his hand and shook his head.

"You're new around here; whatever you want is on me." He said as he smiled brightly. He didn't seem like the kidnapping type, although Mac figured that not most did. She couldn't exactly say no to this, even though the situation seemed quite risky. Her heart was beating faster than it had ever beaten in her life, as she nodded and followed him to the bar. He pulled out a bar stool for her and then one for himself.

"So Cindy, what's your poison?" Cormac asked as he ordered himself a cranberry and vodka. Flashes of her and Dick's first night together flew through her mind, as he said that to her what seemed like ages ago.

"Uhm, I'm a bit of a light weight, how about just a Miller Light." She nodded as he ordered one for her as well. She had her fake ID with her as well, but they didn't even ask for her ID. Their drinks were handed to them shortly after, and Mac found out that Cormac had a way with small talk.

"So anyway, what brings you around here?" Cormac said as he took a lengthy gulp from the glass cup in front of him.

"Just needed a break from the dull days of summer." Mac shrugged as she sheepishly sipped on the beer in front of her. The last thing she needed was to get drunk and be completely defenseless.

"You go to college or something nearby?" He asked, as he finished off his drink and tossed it back to the bartender, indicating he needed a refill.

"Yeah, I'm going to Hearst." He nodded happily at her response.

"So am I. Good school, with good people." He grinned at her. His good looks were in fact not helping her figure out where Wallace was, or any of the multiple questions that needed to be answered.

"Could you point me in the direction of the restroom?" Mac asked, while sliding in the head tilt that Veronica used to make guys turn to jell-o inside. He nodded as he pointed towards the back of the bar, which was even dimmer and smokier than the front of the bar. She stood and headed towards the back. There were three doors. One was labeled "Lads" the other was labeled "Ladies", the third was in the middle of the other two. She checked behind her and then rustled with the door, it was locked. Once again she looked over her shoulder before pulling the bobby pin from her hair and struggling with the door before the lock clicked and she entered.

The room was very small, and very dark. She heard a muffled voice and recognized it immediately. She struggled around obstacles in the room before finding a light switch and flipping it up. In front of her sat Wallace, bleeding from his nose, both eyes colored a dark purple and duct tape wrapped tightly around his mouth, legs, arms and hands. She gasped lightly before rushing over and removing the tape from his lips.

"I found him V, we need a distraction and we need it now." Mac spoke quickly into her shirt. Wallace looked unsurprised. He knew that blonde for 3 years, he knew if Mac was in here it was all part of Veronica's grand scheme.

"I knew Veronica would save me." He smirked and smiled up at Mac. "What I don't get is why she would send her best friend into this danger." He looked puzzled.

"I'm Irish, it was easy to just walk in and meet people and escape to the bathroom." She spoke as she began to undo the tape as painlessly as possible to prevent Wallace from making any type of noise.

Veronica pulled the car around to the back of the bar and unlocked both the side and passenger car doors before grabbing the keys and exiting. She made her way around to the front of the building, creating a plan as she went. She sighed and realized that this plan would be risky in many different reasons, and Logan popped into her mind. She couldn't focus on him right now though, if she were to do so she would end up much more injured than originally. She approached the entrance to the bar, and hoped that she wouldn't become permanently tattooed.

"Long time no see, Liam." Veronica poked her head around the pillar in the middle of the bar area and looked at the same man that first greeted Mac when she entered.

"Miss Mars, to what do I owe this meeting?" He said as he walked away from the pool table, pool stick still in hand.

"I just thought I should let you know that I'm working on a case right now. It may just send quite a few people to jail." Veronica spoke as she saw Mac with Wallace around her shoulder approaching the back door. Her heart pounded for her, but she was thankful to see that they only people near Mac were a young guy at the bar, his head on the car's surface and a few empty glasses in front of him, including a Miller Light bottle, and an older woman in just about the same condition. She realized however that Mac did have a problem, if she were to open the back door a flooding light would pour through the crack and Liam would turn around. Not to mention, she didn't know if the door was going to creak or if it was going to be silent. Veronica's pulse then quickened.

"Really? I doubt it, Mars. With Vinnie in office we could get away with murder." He laughed a deep chuckle. "Hypothetically of course." Before he winked and shined her a yellow stained smiled.

"For some reason I don't think you're going to get as lucky this time." Veronica quickly scanned his body for any weapons. Other than the pool stick, he seemed to be clear of any other weapons.

"Now what would make you think that?" Liam's unhygienic smile faded, and his head tilted to the right. Veronica shrugged her shoulders and headed towards the door. As expected, Liam followed her. Once she exited Liam grabbed her by the collar. This is when Mac took her opportunity to get Wallace outside. He snuck out quietly and gestured for Mac to follow, but Mac saw that Veronica had sacrificed herself as a distraction. Liam brought her by the collar back into the bar, he could have easily spotted Mac but he was too focused on the blonde in front of him. The only thing Mac heard was the squealing of tires outside.

"Mac, Veronica, we need to go now." Dick said loudly into the bar, as Liam dropped the blonde on the pool table. She hurriedly scurried over towards Mac, but Liam turned and pulled a gun out of the back of his pants. Veronica was out the door and Mac was almost behind her, but not close enough. Liam pulled the trigger on the gun as Dick looked on in horror before running out the door and heading towards the back of the building. Mac felt a sharp, intense pain throughout her left leg, she grabbed her thigh and felt a thick, warm liquid flowing from her pants. Her world slowed down. Dick was running from the corner in slow motion, Veronica and Wallace were pulling her into the car, and after that it was darkness.

**A/N2: Short again, I know. After this, the chapters will get longer. I figured I had to end it here because if I had kept it going I would have to answer a lot of questions and the chapter would be like 6,000 words long. Hopefully you guys liked it!**


	14. I Think I Love You

**A/N: I know! Shocker! I'm updating much quicker than usual. It seems like when my life is falling apart, I tend to write more. So, you guys get updates quicker! Uhm, I basically knew where this was headed after the past chapter. I'll be honest, I'd like to crank out about 12 more chapters and make this a pretty lengthy story, but I'm not that great with creating mystery and finding solutions and stuff. Anywho! Here's chapter 13, much sooner than I had anticipated. Happy Reading!**

Her vision was foggy when her eyes opened. The lit room took time to come into clear view. Her eyes squinted when the full blast of light greeted her eyes. She heard a faint beeping sound, and scattered low voices around her. She was trying to gather her thoughts and figure out where she was before a welcome face walked in front of her, took in her sight and smiled and ran back outside into the hallway. She heard a male voice happily saying "She's alive! And awake!", before hearing quick footsteps back into the bright room.

"Mac!" exclaimed a male voice. Mac turned towards her left side to see a blonde head of hair and blue eyes tainted red, with swollen eyelids. Mac tried saying something before a finger was placed on her lips. She nodded. "All of us were worried." Dick began to say, but felt a lump in his throat. Two days ago Mac was shot in the leg, by Liam Fitzpatrick. It was a roller coaster ever since they brought her into the hospital. He remembered everything the nurses had told them.

"_We have a serious trauma patient being brought in. Shot wound to the upper left thigh, possible femoral artery damage along with muscle damage, pulse is low as is the blood pressure. Need to get to the OR stat." a nurse was stating to the doctors and nurses that surrounded Mac's gurney. Dick and Veronica were behind them and tried to follow her back into the operating room. The nurse quickly stood in front of them. "Hospital staff only beyond this point, waiting room is down that hall to the left." She said quickly before stating that they may also need a crash cart to be present during the operation._

"_Dick…" Veronica said softly, through tears that were running from both eyes, nonstop. She gently placed a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged away._

"_A minute too late." He stated softly, before pacing back and forth in front of Veronica. Wallace had been taken immediately to the police department to recount the ordeal he had been through, and to also be questioned about the shooting that had taken place, Dick and Veronica would need to go in as soon as Mac was feeling better._

"_There was nothing either of us could have done without getting shot ourselves." Veronica tried to reassure him, but it wasn't working. Dick was near hysterics in an almost full waiting room of people._

"_So? I would have taken that bullet for her Veronica. I know I may act like a jackass sometimes, but that girl has something on me." Dick said as he shook his head softly, and felt the heat of tears escape from his eyes. "She's never going to forgive you for this." Dick said harshly. Veronica felt like she had been punched in the stomach. It was unavoidable, someone would have gotten hurt no matter what that night, but it was the best friend of hers whom she had begged and pleaded with to go along. It made her feel like Dick may have had a point._

"_She isn't is she?" Veronica asked as she looked over towards Dick, who had his head in his hands, and felt a new wave of tears fall from her eyes. Dick couldn't muster and energy to say anything back, he did blame her. He couldn't tell her this wasn't her fault, because in his head the only reason Mac went was to be a good friend to a girl who only uses her for favors. He knew it was more than that, and that they were friends and not just coworkers, but at this point in time he didn't care if they were blood related, Veronica almost got his girlfriend murdered. A nurse walked slowly into the waiting room before asking for those who were here for Cindy MacKenzie._

"_We're here for her." Dick said in a small voice, bracing himself for the worst news._

"_The good news is, she's alive." The nurse gave a small smile, and both Veronica and Dick let out a small sigh, as if a weight had been lifted from their shoulders. "The bad news, she flat lined twice while we were operating on her. Her femoral artery is intact, which is the main artery that supplies blood flow from the heart to the leg, but there were many other veins that were damaged, and she lost quite a lot of blood from the injury. We successfully removed the bullet that was lodged in her muscle, and using her legs will be quite painful for her after she recovers. The next 24 to 48 hours will be extremely crucial, to see if the repaired veins will work correctly." The nurse said softly, before nodding graciously and leaving to let them soak in the information that they had just been told._

"You've been here in the hospital for about a day and a half." Dick spoke as he grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips to lay a soft kiss on it, Mac smiled sheepishly. "You'll be in here a while, but I haven't left since you've been here and I don't plan on it." Dick tried to smile for her, letting her know that he was strong and would be here for her. But seeing her face as pale as the sheets that surrounded her was making him extremely upset. "Do you need anything?" He offered, she nodded.

"Water." She spoke hoarsely, and let out a small cough from her dry throat. He nodded quickly before pouring her a glass of water from the small container that was beside her. She chugged through three glasses before feeling good to talk again. "Was I really shot? Or was that just a horrific nightmare?" Mac asked half seriously, and half jokingly.

"You were, but it didn't damage the main artery in your leg. Female artery or something?" Dick said, and Mac giggled.

"Femoral." Mac corrected him before smiling again. "Where's the rest of the gang?" Mac asked.

"Wallace and Veronica are both in the hall; I told them you woke up." Dick stated.

"I haven't been awake, at all?" Mac questioned, and seemed frightened about that fact.

"You've been on a lot of medications, to keep the pain down." Dick said quickly, "You want to see them?" He smiled as Mac nodded and returned his grin. He got up and came back with Veronica and Wallace in tow. Veronica felt the heat beneath her eyes grow strong, she wasn't sure if her best friend held a grudge or not, and she wasn't sure what to say.

"Hey guys." Mac said happily. Wallace walked over and hugged her firmly.

"Thanks for saving my life Mac, I owe you one." He said and winked and Mac smiled, before turning her gaze over to Veronica who was still firmly placed at the end of her bed.

"You can come closer, getting shot isn't contagious." Mac laughed a bit, and saw that that had made Veronica break into tears. "When I'm nervous I joke V, I'm sorry." She seemed concerned.

"You're sorry?" She said a little outraged. "I got my best friend shot because I wanted to be the hero and save Wallace. I brought you into that club after I told you what happened in that place. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be in this bed hooked up to these machines and getting blood pumped into you." Wallace went over and put his arm around his broken down friend.

"Veronica, I don't blame you." Mac reassured her, before attempting to sit up and felt a jolt of pain flow through her body, radiating from her leg, and fell back onto the bed heavily.

"See? You should! You're here because of what I did! Because I forced you to come along with me, now you can't even sit up because off the bullet wound." Veronica was in hysterics and left the room, Wallace followed her.

"I don't blame her." Mac said softly as she looked at the door that Veronica just exited from.

"You should Macky, she could have gotten you killed." Dick said firmly.

"I have free will; I chose to go along with her. Albeit a little hesitant, but still, I went and I helped her save her friend. Our friend." Mac felt a little accomplished as she spoke, and looked over at Dick who had looked away from her.

"Mac, she pressured you into doing this. She is the one who got you shot." Dick tried to change Mac's mind, but it only outraged her.

"You know, like I said, I could have said no. I could have told her she was crazy. I could have told her that the police would have found him eventually; I could have done any of that. I didn't because he's my friend too, and I've known about The Castle and their intentions for a while now. I wasn't going to sit around and wait while the sheriff twiddled his thumbs and sat around admiring the Fitzpatricks." Mac spoke harshly, and returned her gaze to her wounded leg underneath the covers. Dick felt defeated, he knew the same thing but it was easier to place the blame on someone else. Someone that he used to hate with a fiery passion. Someone who has given him an abundance of reasons not to like her in the first place. Someone that he didn't love, with every fiber of his being.

"I'm sorry." He managed to say. "It's just that, Veronica was easy to blame. She's always sticking her nose in other people's business. It's hard for me to admit that you walked in there by your own doing and ended up getting shot." Dick said softly, before Mac spoke.

"It's always easier to find a way around the real person who's to blame. Liam shot me, because I made the bad decision to lie to people like that." Mac spoke quietly. "Could you please bring Veronica back in? And maybe you could give us some alone time, head back to the suite and get some sleep, or hang with Wallace. I just think I need to talk to her alone." Mac said as Dick nodded, and left the room. Veronica entered soon after and sat beside Mac, and tried to force herself to be strong even though in her mind, her friend was here because of her.

"Veronica, I don't blame you. I made the choice to come with you. If I wouldn't have gone it may have been you, or Wallace. It seems that with either situation one of us would be in this hospital bed, and it just happened to be me." He said very calmly, as Veronica nodded.

"I just feel terrible. I feel like I guided you to get shot." Veronica said as she held back tears that were forming in her eyes.

"Don't feel terrible, only one of us should feel that way." Mac smiled softly, but Veronica couldn't bring herself to find humor in this situation.

"How can you sit there and joke like that? You were on your deathbed a day ago, and now you act as if nothing is wrong." Veronica said as she shook her head and the unbelievable way that Mac was acting.

"I was shot. I could've died. I'm trying to find happiness in the little things. If I'm going to die soon, I should laugh while I can." Mac shrugged before reaching for the glass of water, her arms were somewhat more mobile then they had been.

"I understand that." Veronica spoke, before an overwhelming silence overcame them.

"Does Logan know?" Mac asked curiously, breaking the silence with a difficult question. Veronica looked down at her palms while responding.

"He does much like Dick and myself he thinks I'm to blame. He said 'I told you so' and all that stuff. He's been up here a couple of times, but he's been acting really odd lately. Pretty sure it's almost time for our semi-annual break up." Veronica smiled as Mac giggled. Before long, an older doctor walked in and greeted both Veronica and Mac.

"I'm Doctor Yearn. I'm just here to do some vitals and check out your injury." The doctor smiled before hooking Mac up to the blood pressure machine. He nodded occasionally as he checked her pulse, and her heart. Everything seemed to be in check. "There is extensive bandaging on your wound. I'll need you to leave the room for the time being." He directed towards Veronica, she shook her head and left quickly.

"Am I going to throw up when I see it?" Mac asked honestly. She had never been a fan of blood, and seeing an injury such as this might scar her for life. The doctor chuckled regardless.

"You'll be fine, it's been stapled closed. I'm just checking to make sure that things are healing properly." The doctor gave her a warm smile before undoing about 5 pounds of bandages from her thigh. The wound was about 5 inches in length and the stapled slit was swollen as well as different shades of purple and blue. Mac's heart began to race at the sight of the wound. She knew it was going to look horrendous, but it was almost heartbreaking to her in a way as well. She couldn't put a finger on the emotion that was pulsating through her.

"Looks to be healing well. In a couple of days I'll put lighter bandaging around the area, and once you start going to physical therapy to work on walking on that leg, It'll be nicely healed up." The doctor spoke before exiting, and Dick walked back in the room.

"Everything okay?" He asked worriedly.

"Yeah, apparently I'm healing well." She spoke before dismissing the previous emotion from her head.

"That's good, I'm really happy that you're doing better. You basically scared the shit out of me." Dick said through a happy smile, that his girlfriend was alive and well.

"I'm a fighter Dick; there wasn't any way I was going to let a bullet keep me down." Mac joked back as they quieted and he grabbed her hand and held it close to his chest.

"It's been a little over a month since you moved in with me and Logan at the suite. In that month I've never felt as happy, or as pissed off, or as sad as I've ever felt in my life." Dick began, seeing that Mac's face looked hurt. He began to correct himself quickly. "What I mean is that, I'm just really glad that you didn't go to New York and—" Mac cut him off.

"My parents! I haven't called them, they don't know what happened." Her eyes had widened as she jumped towards the hospital phone, and silently apologized to Dick for interrupting him. He nodded slowly. He stood up and hear her voice crackle as she was talking to her mom, and soon heard her begin to sob as she informed her parents of the shooting, he left quickly for her to be alone. Outside, he noticed that Logan had shown back up and he and Veronica were talking on the opposite side of the hallway. He realized it wasn't as much talking as it was screaming. He glanced over at Wallace, and noticed for the first time he had a couple of bandages over his wounds on his face.

"You wanna grab something from the café?" Dick questioned. He didn't really expect Wallace to say yes, or to say much of anything for that matter, but he did.

"Food sounds good, coffee wouldn't hurt either." He said as he stood up along with Dick and they made their way to the cafeteria.

"I don't think I ever got around to asking you what happened at the sheriff's office." Dick began to speak. The silence was thick, and he wasn't enjoying that feeling.

"Well, the mic that was on Mac at the time is the key evidence they have. It was on while she was undoing me and while she was shot. It's got the voices and everything that was said, Vinnie said it was almost a sure thing that they are headed to jail. It was the first time I've ever heard him worry about the Fitzpatricks." Wallace said as they reached their destination and stood in the short line near the register.

"That's a good sign then." Dick stated.

"I hope so; Vinnie's tight with them though so nothing is really definitive." Wallace said as he grabbed a try and put a variety of food onto it.

"Definitive?" Dick asked. Wallace rolled his eyes.

"Definitive basically means set in stone. Nothing is set in stone because of Vinnie." Wallace finished before shaking his head. He still couldn't understand why in the world that Dick was the man that a girl like Mac went for. "How's Mac doing?" Wallace asked as they paid for their food and headed towards a table nearby.

"Good, she was on the phone with her parents when I left. I just wonder how they are taking this kind of news." Dick said as he bit into his sandwich.

"My mom would flip if I told her I got shot. She flipped when she found out I was taken hostage, without any real forms of injury. I'll bet her parents are going to be on their way home." Wallace spoke as Dick nodded. They continued eating before Wallace pried into Dick's life. "How are you two?" He asked curiously.

"We're good; I think we're really good." Dick said as he smiled. He stared back at his food before approaching Wallace with his question. "Can I ask you for some advice?" Dick asked, before realizing he was asking someone that he hadn't spoke to once in his life, until today.

"Sure, shoot." Wallace said quickly, as Dick's eyes widened. "Sorry, bad timing. How about, 'Sure, ask away.'" He corrected himself.

"I was in the middle of telling Mac something pretty important when she mentioned her parents. Let's just say it's something I've never said before, and I'm really worried about what she'll say back. I just get nervous to the point of throwing up whenever I think about it." Dick said.

"You love her don't you?" Wallace said with a sly grin on his face while nodding his head.

"Is it too soon to love someone?" Dick asked, as he had only been with her for a little under a month.

"It varies for everyone. People believe in love at first sight, me personally though I think that's ridiculous. I think if you're with the right person, anything is possible." Wallace said as he patted Dick's shoulder.

"Dude, you're like a physiologer or something." Dick said and finished his sandwich.

"Philosopher?" Wallace corrected him.

"Yeah that." He said as they continued to eat before they heard running footsteps towards them. Veronica was quickly rushing over to their table.

"I've got news guys, and it isn't good news." Veronica stated firmly, as both Wallace and Dick looked at her questioningly. "It's Vinnie, he's released Liam." Veronica spoke firmly, as she verified with her dad and Alicia on the telephone.

"Like I said," Wallace stated as he got up and threw away his food and placed the tray on top of the trash bin. "Nothing's ever definitive with Vinnie." He spoke quietly, before the three debated whether or not to inform Mac that the man who shot her is now back at the River Styx, home free and safe.

**A/N2: The length of this chapter was hellacious, I'm aware, but it's the shortest I could make it. I hope you guys liked it though! Hopefully I can get another chapter out before a week passes. I'd like to have this finished by June or July and maybe start on another one :] Well, keep them reviews coming! I'd like to get over 90 by the next time I update! Let's see if that can happen!**


	15. This LoVe

**A/N: This is a chapter for Logan/Veronica strictly. It focuses on their relationship, and why Logan has been acting weird lately. It follows them throughout the past chapter, once Veronica called him and let him know that Mac was injured, through the next couple of days. Thought I'd let you guys know that, so you weren't confused while reading it. Happy Reading!**

Veronica paced the waiting room with her phone in her hand. Logan should have called by now, and she knew that. It seemed as soon as she caused herself or anybody around her danger, he became a different person. Instead of caring more like anybody else would, he sheltered himself from the world. She couldn't wrap her head around why he could become so senseless in times like these, but she knew she had to call him. The phone rang twice before he picked up.

"You're safe, right?" Logan asked in a rushed tone, as if he was up and ready to run to the hospital if she weren't. Maybe she was wrong about him.

"Yes, I'm safe." She said in a shaky voice, as she looked over at Dick who was sitting in a chair with swollen eyes.

"And Wallace? He's fine too?" Logan asked, in a calmer voice this time around.

"He's a bit bruised, but he's fine. He's at the sheriff's office." Veronica spoke.

"Good, so are you on your way back to the suite soon?" He said.

"Actually, I'm at the hospital…" She said as she closed her eyes shut, preparing for Logan's rage to rear its ugly head.

"Why are you there? I thought you said that you were okay?" Logan said a little louder than even he would have liked to said it.

"I am, but Mac isn't." Veronica said as she felt her voice crack halfway through what she said. The line was silent for a while before she heard a short sigh.

"I'll be there soon." Logan said quickly before hanging up and getting himself to the hospital. On the way there he couldn't help but think what a dangerous thing being Veronica's friend entailed. For some reason, he wanted to say that he told her so. He wanted to make her feel bad for getting her friend hurt. He knew no matter what he said or felt, he wouldn't do these things. He'd keep his emotions bottled inside before he said something stupid, that would lead to him and Veronica ending things for good. He arrived at the hospital and quickly let put his thoughts farther away in his mind, and only focused on what mattered. The girl who had given his cheesy website a shot, and hadn't taken sides during he and Veronica's breakup; could be seriously injured. He walked in and Veronica rushed over to him with open arms. He grabbed her before she could reach them around him, and pushed her back.

"What happened?" He demanded.

"Mac got shot, and it's my fault." Veronica spoke softly before losing her battle with the burning tears behind her eyes. He wanted to say something comforting, and tell her that it wasn't her fault, but if he did he would be a liar.

"She's going to be alright though?" Logan asked once again, dismissing Veronica's previous statement. Veronica shrugged before saying anything.

"I don't know, the doctor's just told us that the next couple of days are very important for her condition." Veronica spoke.

"I'm sure she will be fine." He said as he brought her close and wrapped his arms around her. As much as he hated what she did for a living, and the fact that she brings her friends into her difficult situations; he was still her boyfriend and he wanted her to know that he was there for her. She clung onto his shirt, and cried into his chest. Logan kissed the top of her head before letting her know that he was going over to talk to Dick. She nodded before beginning her pacing over again.

"How are you holding up, man?" Logan asked gently before sitting beside his broken friend.

"I don't know how I'm even sitting here. If it weren't for your girlfriend—"

"She already feels bad enough, lay off of her." Logan interrupted.

"She should feel bad. Mac didn't want to go play cops and robbers with her, but she laid a guilt trip on her. I know why I treated her like a dog in high school, she deserved it." Dick said with anger dripping from his lips.

"Dick maybe you should think before you say some of the stuff you do." Logan began, "If you don't remember, your psychotic brother raped her and then proceeded to try and kill her over a year later." Logan spoke angrily. He wasn't sure why he was so upset, or why he brought Beaver into this conversation, but he knew it would hurt Dick, and that's all he wanted to do right now.

"Go to hell Logan! Don't act like your family's fucking perfect! In fact, compared to your family mine's like the goddamn Brady Bunch!" Dick shouted before leaving his chair and shoving Veronica slightly on his way to the exit. Veronica glared at him through bloodshot eyes before walking back to Logan. She rubbed his shoulder lightly, but he moved away from her touch.

"Please don't make this about you and Dick tonight." Veronica said pleadingly, as if trying to stick up for Mac.

"How could I Veronica?" Logan began yelling as he stood from his own chair and towered over her. "Everything's about you! Drama and tragedy follows you wherever you go! How about you start acting like a good friend and not put your other friends in this kind of danger. I think they would all appreciate it if everyone didn't fucking hate you, or your father. You should come with a warning label with the kind of trouble you cause." Logan spoke loudly and with a bitter emotion filled voice. Veronica flinched at the sound and intent of Logan's words. She knew she deserved it, to some extent, but not to this. She felt her heart race quicker beneath her shirt, and figured if she didn't speak soon it would pound out of her chest, and unto the floor.

"That's not what I meant, first of. And second, who the hell do you think you are talking to me about drama following me? I'm the daughter of a private eye, I'm a freaking private eye myself, there's always going to be someone or something that doesn't agree with me, and I have to figure out why. What's your excuse huh? Running around beating the living hell out of people for no reason?" Veronica was interrupted.

"I beat the living hell out of him because he decided to portray your naked body all throughout the internet, sorry for doing that!" Logan screamed.

"So that's how you're going to react every time someone doesn't treat me right? Or does the wrong thing to me? I don't need a bodyguard, Logan, or else I'd have one. I can fend for myself." Veronica tried to speak calmly, but knew that it wasn't as calm as she'd liked it to be.

"I need to be alone, call me when they figure out if Mac's alright, other than that, don't bother trying to get a hold of me." Logan said softly before exiting the waiting room, and then all eyes were on Veronica. It wasn't one of her top five places to have an emotional fight with her boyfriend, but it wasn't like she could choose when Logan lost his cool. Correction, when they both lost their cool.

The night turned into morning and there was no certain news of Mac's condition. The only information that Dick, Veronica or Wallace ever got was that she was "stable" and they were getting frustrated. Dick was lounged on a couple of chairs put together, and Wallace was getting something from the vending machines. Veronica on the other hand was lost in thought.

"You alright?" Wallace asked her from across the waiting room, as he retrieved the bag of chips from the machine in front of him.

"I'm fine." She said as she smiled half heartedly at her friend.

"I've known you for too long to believe that." Wallace said as he took a seat next to her. Veronica smiled again, this time with a bit more meaning.

"It's just Logan, the fight today was bad and I wish I could sit here and focus on my friend that's laying in a hospital bed back there, but I can't. I'm focused on Logan and everything he said to me this morning." Veronica said as she threw her head back at the chair.

"You guys really redefined the word "epic"' Wallace said as she opened the bag of chips and ate a couple of them.

"How?" Veronica asked curiously.

"I think in the sense that Logan brought up that night that you told me about, he meant epic as in never ending kind of love. Not the type of epic you two have become. Kind of like an epic war." Wallace spoke.

"I didn't want it to become this epic war; I wanted it to be an epic love. I tried, but he just doesn't understand."

"Veronica, it's not only him that's screwing things up. Come on. You rushed into a place where you had known enemies, and had a bad experience beforehand. He rescued you from that situation. You should have called the police." Wallace stated.

"I couldn't get the police involved, it all goes through Vinnie, and I doubt he would have moved a finger to help anybody; especially when it involved his buddies." Veronica snuck her hand into his chip bag and snagged one for herself.

"You could've tried. Listen, I know where he's coming from. He doesn't want to see you take on something that's too big for you. You almost got raped, twice, last year during the rape case. It's things like that that take a toll on the boy's mind." Wallace said as he slouched back in his chair.

"But it's what I do; it's what I'm going to do for the rest of my life." Veronica argued back.

"It's great that it's what you want to do, but maybe you should take some less extreme cases for now. Wait a while before investigating rape or murder, just stick to simple things. You were good at finding missing dogs; maybe you should go back to that." Wallace said, half jokingly. He himself would rather have his friend look for dogs than constantly risk her life.

"You know I can't just ignore the big things and settle for less." Veronica said a little angered.

"Don't get mad at me V, don't shoot the messenger, but I know how he feels. If you spent as much time and devotion as you did to your cases, as you did to Logan, maybe he wouldn't feel like he's constantly second best to you." Wallace shrugged and focused his attention on the TV in the corner of the room. Veronica kept quiet; she knew that Wallace had a point. She knew that it would aggravate her if Logan spent that much time, or devotion to something other than her.

The next day seemed to drag on. Dick had basically moved himself into Mac's room, and promised the second that she woke up he would let Veronica and Wallace know. Veronica had begun to call Logan, trying to tell him that Mac was going to be fine, but she was constantly sent to voicemail. Wallace called Logan's cell, and he answered. He told him that Mac was fine, while Veronica went into a rage. Logan agreed that he would be up there later; he just had a couple of things to take care of. Yet again, Veronica was curious and pissed off that Logan completely ignored her and answered Wallace's phone call. Before either of them knew it, Dick alerted them that Mac had woke up, and for a while the group was all smiles.

They each took their turn going back to her room and seeing her. Veronica joked about her and Logan's "Semi-annual" break up. She couldn't let Mac know what had happened, not when she needed to focus on getting herself better. When the doctor left, and Veronica saw that Dick had decided to go back into the room. She decided to call Logan from Wallace's cell phone. She had already tried twice from her own phone, and the likelihood of him answering Wallace's was a bit better than him answering hers.

"Sorry man, I am going to get up to the hospital. " Logan answered after about a ring and a half.

"It's me." Veronica's voice felt weak, and she was hoping that he wouldn't instantly hang up on her.

"Veronica, I told you that I needed some time alone." Logan's voice was calm, and he didn't seem angry. And she wasn't sure whether that soothed her or pissed her off.

"I just wanted to apologize." Veronica swallowed her pride before continuing. "I shouldn't have said half of the things that I said to you yesterday. I know I'm complicated, and I know that drama and danger follow me wherever I go. But maybe if I tried to avoid the drama and danger more than I have been, it wouldn't be as bad." Veronica spoke.

"And how do you plan on avoiding those?" Logan asked. She was happy that she managed to get his attention and keep him on the phone.

"I just won't take cases that put me in danger. I'll take cases that don't involve a mob of any kind. And if my friend is kidnapped, I will call the sheriff. I just don't want us to become something of the past." Veronica spoke, before hearing Logan sigh.

"You'd give up doing what you love for me?" Logan said softly.

"I wouldn't be giving up doing what I love, I'd still do it. But I'd stick to cases that need me to find a missing dog, or figure out who the bastard cheater is sleeping with." Veronica joked. She heard Logan chuckle on the other end, and she felt instantly relieved.

"I'm sorry that all of this had to happen, and I'm sorry if it feels like I'm pulling you away from something you love doing. I just can't stand by and watch my girlfriend run around chasing criminals, or getting hurt." Logan spoke.

"I understand that now, and I know you aren't trying to control me; you're trying to keep me around. As hard as it's going to be to not get involved in intense situations, I'll try." Veronica said before her own cell phone went off in her pocket. "My phones ringing; it's my dad; I'll call you back soon." She said before hastily hanging up Wallace's phone and answering her own.

"Hey, what's going on with the Fitzpatricks?" Veronica asked anxiously, as she made her way down to the cafeteria to inform Dick and Logan as soon as possible.

"Vinnie let Liam go; he said there wasn't any circumstantial evidence." Keith sighed into the receiver. It was then that Veronica realized, she wasn't done solving intense crimes. For Logan's sake, she was. To everyone else, she was going to get Liam put away for this crime, no matter what the consequences were.


	16. Fighting from the Sidelines

**A/N: So as I am writing this author's note, I have 98 reviews! You guys are unbelievable! I'm glad that you guys like this story so far, and it's because of your awesome reviews that I got my butt in gear and am writing this chapter currently. As an update on me I actually go to college full time and am now working 2 jobs for the summer, so the chapters definitely won't be out as often as I'd like, BUT instead of doing homework, I've decided to write this chapter. Neuroscience is not as interesting as Veronica Mars :D Happy Reading!**

After a few more days of her being hospitalized, Mac was back on her feet. Her leg caused her a bit of pain when she first started to walk on it again, but after a while she was almost back to 100%. Occasionally she'd take a couple of Tylenol to ease the slight pain if she walked more than she should on a certain day, but other than that life her for was back to normal. Their sophomore year in college was going to begin in just 4 days. She vowed that she'd spend that time with her boyfriend and her best friend and away from all criminal activity. Although she also vowed that she'd never get involved in any of Veronica's cases, unless she needed a techie.

Veronica and Logan has sorted out their differences since the night at the hospital, and they had rekindled the love that was there all along, but Veronica was hiding a huge secret from Logan, and it had to stay that way. Veronica was working with her Dad to figure out where Liam was located. He had vanished since the night that Vinnie let him walk away from his crime. The "dinner" nights at her father's place were really collaboration meetings between her, her father and Leo; whom also wanted to see Liam put behind bars for good. She wasn't technically doing anything dangerous, but she realized that this still made her quite an accomplice to him being jailed if he ever was, and then a whole new fleet of enemies would try to find her.

"Couldn't you stay here once this week for dinner?" Logan pleaded, breaking Veronica's train of thought.

"My dad is lonely, Alicia is out of town for the week visiting relatives with Wallace and he isn't used to being home alone. I'm sorry." Veronica put on a sad face for Logan.

"So not even once?" He mimicked Veronica's puppy dog eyes. "For me?" Veronica smiled widely.

"I think once should be fine." She said through her smile and Logan kissed her forehead.

"Man you guys have a true love hate relationship." Dick said.

"As long as it's ninety something percent love, we make it work." Logan smiled, and Veronica giggled. She glanced down at her watch, and started heading towards the door. "Hey, I thought you said you could spare one night?" Logan asked as Veronica opened the door.

"Yes, one night, but not tonight. I already told him I'd come, and he wants Mac to come too." Veronica opened her eyes a little wider towards Mac's direction. Mac's eyes widened, before nodding.

"Right, yeah I totally forgot." She said as she smiled and stood from her position on the couch. "I'll see you guys later." She said as she began to walk off, but Dick grabbed her arm and pulled her down to him. He kissed her quickly but meaningfully. She smiled to herself.

"Is that still weird to anybody else?" Logan joked, and Veronica nodded her head.

"I think it'll be weird forever." She said as Mac rolled her eyes and Dick waved to both of the girls as they left. Logan sat on the couch and grabbed the remote and channeled through the TV trying to find something on.

"Can I ask you something, man?" Dick asked, without looking over towards Logan.

"Sure." He said as he passed American Pie and Dick quickly grabbed the remote and changed back.

"When did you tell Veronica you loved her?" Dick asked very seriously.

"To be honest, it took me awhile to even admit I had feelings for her. Let alone tell her how I feel; mainly because of Lilly." He answered honestly. Dick nodded.

"Okay, new question." Dick began. "When did you feel it?"

"I don't know. I mean when Lilly was alive, she was like my sister. Wait, no, I take that back. She wasn't like Trina whatsoever. She was around constantly when Lilly and I would hang out. She was my best friend." He seemed to be reminiscing in his head, as a ghost of a smile creped on his face. "But then that year happened, where I treated her like dirt. It wasn't until she tried to find my mom that I realized I might not have hated her as much as I thought. Then when I thought she was in trouble at the hotel, I think that's when I realized I had feelings for her. Maybe not 'being in love' feelings, but some sort of feelings." He finished, noticing that Dick was listening intently.

"You think you fell in love with her in… I don't know, two months?" Dick asked curiously. It was becoming obvious to Logan that Dick thought he was in love with Mac.

"Listen, if I learned anything about being with Lilly…" He trailed off, and a hurt look crossed his face. "Is that you should always say how you feel because you never know when they won't be there anymore." He finished as he looked back up to the TV.

"Wow, who knew you could be so deep dude." Dick smiled, and continued to occupy himself with his own thoughts, and left Logan to his own as well.

"So am I going to start coming to all of your family dinners?" Mac joked.

"I have to tell you something." Veronica spoke as she turned down her radio, cleared her throat and prepared for the hell Mac was going to give her. "I'm still working on the case with Liam." She inched herself away from Mac, as if to anticipate her hitting her. Mac's eyes widened, as she turned towards Veronica.

"Are you serious?" Mac asked, her tone was filled with both anger and shock.

"Mac, I couldn't let Liam go free anymore. It's bullshit and my dad supports me, as long as I don't actually go into the battlefield, he's okay with me helping from the sidelines." She said, as she pulled into her dad's apartment complex.

"So, I'm here strictly for some type of tech mumbo jumbo?" Mac asked, her tone went back to normal.

"Only tech things. I couldn't forgive myself if I ever let you go back into the battlefield again." Veronica said softly.

"Alright, well I'm at your service Commander Mars." She mocked an army salute before both girls exited the vehicle and entered the apartment.

"Hi honey." Keith said, his back was turned away from the door. Staring intently into his laptop.

"Hey dad, I brought Mac." Veronica said as she removed her shoes and tossed her bag on the couch.

"Good, we definitely need her." Keith said as he turned towards the girls. "Hi Mac." He smiled softly before returning his gaze to his computer.

"Hi Mr. Mars." She said, as she took off her shoes.

"Come on Mac, I've known you plenty long enough for you to call me Keith." He spoke. Mac smiled as did Veronica, before they circled around Keith and looked at his laptop screen. "I got a blank package in the mail this morning, its security camera footage of a man with Liam's description leaving a gas station in Pasadena. I guess whoever got the footage didn't want to be involved." Keith shrugged his shoulders as he played the footage back for the girls. They watched it a couple of times before assuring Keith that it was Liam in the footage.

"Okay, so all this is saying is that he needed gas near Pasadena. If he filled his tank he could be somewhere in Mexico, or somewhere in Washington, or he could have drove to LAX and got a plane ticket." Mac said.

"It would help if his car was turned around, so we could get a good view of his license plate, but all we have is the make and model of his car." Veronica said as she played the tape over, once again looking for anything to give them some sort of lead. "Have you seen if the car is registered to Liam?"

"I've checked the background check already; no cars are registered in his name. It's a rental. I've also called the rental car companies around here and none of them have loaned any cars like this to anybody. It seems he pulled this car out of thin air." Keith said as he decided to put the footage on loop. The three looked at the footage over and over until Mac caught something.

"Hey wait." She began as she pointed to the top right corner of the video. "Isn't that another security camera? If we got that footage, we could make out the license plate since it's taping from behind the car." Both Mars' smiled and Keith patted Mac on the back.

"So I guess tonight we are headed out to Pasadena. It should only be about a half hour drive if traffic is decent." Keith said as he glanced at his watch. He grabbed his car keys and headed towards the door. Mac and Veronica followed behind him.

It turns out that traffic wasn't in their favor, and they arrived there just a little under an hour. Veronica had come up with an elaborate scheme to tell Logan while they were en route to Pasadena, and decided that it was better this way; to not have him worry, instead of worry.

"So how are we going to get the footage?" Mac asked.

"That's the easy part Mac." Veronica said as she followed her dad into the gas station. He pulled out his PI badge and showed the cashier behind the counter.

"One of my clients was seen here yesterday, he's guilty of quite a lot of crimes. I received a package with some footage in it, but I'm going to need the security camera footage from the camera that is on the opposite side." He said as he pointed in the direction of the security camera. The cashier looked nervous as he nodded his head and headed to the back. The three waited a couple of minutes before he returned with a DVD in hands and handed it to Keith. "Thank you." He told the cashier before heading back to his car. Veronica snagged the DVD from him and slipped it into her laptop, as presumed the license plate was clear as day.

"Gotchya Liam." She said before entering her password and username into the prying eyes website. She typed in the license plate into the search bar and was surprised to see where the car came from. "It came from Angel's junkyard. Weevil's cousin." Veronica spoke, as she scrolled down the page. "The owner had an alarm installed after he bought it, it seems. The owner's name is Tyler Irish." Veronica rolled her eyes at Liam's code name. She looked over at her dad. "It seems all we have to do is tell them that the car was stolen and they should be able to work some kind of magic." Veronica shrugged as she read off the number to her father, and he quickly began dialing it and proceeded to talk.

"Let's hope this finishes the case." Veronica began as she looked down at her phone. "It's late and this lie wasn't that extravagant. I'm just hoping Logan doesn't find anything out." She sighed.

"Are you really sure that lying to him is the greatest of all ideas?" Mac asked. She didn't mean to sound rude, but she halfheartedly believed that Veronica heard it that way.

"Logan and I have a weird relationship as it is. Sometimes a lie is necessary to keep our relationship strong." She reassured Mac, and in some ways reassured herself.

"Never heard the phrase 'lying is necessary to keep our relationship strong' ever in my life, but if it's what works." Mac shrugged, and looked over at Keith as he closed his phone.

"The car was actually turned into the police." Keith was shaking his head.

"So Liam's behind bars." Veronica began to smile. "Even if only for the time being, right?"

"Not quite. The car was reported as abandoned on the side of the highway in Mexico. When the police went to investigate it, it wasn't abandoned." Keith spoke softly. "Liam was in the driver's seat with his throat slit." Keith finished. Both girls glanced at each other. Both of them filled with an intense amount of happiness. They knew it was wrong to feel this happy about someone's death, but it was in this case where the certain someone's death could actually be celebrated.

"So then, he's gone. Forever?" Veronica asked to make sure.

"Yes, that's what happens when people die." Keith began. "But that isn't it Veronica. They made out one single fingerprint on the steering wheel of the car. Liam was murdered." Keith spoke.

"Well whoever it was did the world a favor." Mac shrugged as she glanced down at her thigh.

"That's not the way that the police are looking at it, and with the record the man has, it isn't looking good for him. He will inevitably do hard time for this." Keith sighed.

"How is that possible? Whoever this guy is just took a known criminal off the street for good." Veronica argued.

"It's the 'for good' part that have the police concerned. If Weevil could murder Liam he could—"

"Wait, Weevil did this?" Veronica was blown away, as was Mac.

"I guarantee he heard about Mac through some newspaper article or even on the news itself, and with his past it just seems like something he would do." Keith said, obviously flustered.

"Dad, Weevil's been doing well. There's no way that this was him, there is an outside source somehow, and I know it." Veronica's gut spoke for itself. "Have the police been able to track Weevil?" Veronica spoke softly, her mind racing at what her next move would be.

"Nope, it seems he's learned well from one of his private investigating friends on how to hide his tracks." Keith glared at his daughter, and she just smiled.

"Dad, you told me to be the best, and I guess I am." She said as her dad started the car, and they headed back towards Neptune. Her phone vibrated in her hands as she flipped open the screen, she saw it was from the wanted criminal himself.

"_I've been framed… again. Need ur help, V."_ The text shook Veronica to the core, she realized her gut feeling was right, and she knew her next move.

"_You need to tell me where you are, I'll be there later tonight. Text you before I leave the hotel."_


	17. Lie vs Lie

**A/N: I've gone over a month without updating, I am so sorry guys. I hope you haven't forgotten about this story because I haven't! I've been going through quite a bit, trying to graduate college a few months early and I just got fired from one of my jobs. So I suppose that this is a blessing as well as a curse; I'll be able to write more often hopefully now that I'm not working my ass off all the time. Thanks for being awesome fans! I hope that you guys enjoy this chapter; I enjoyed writing it. Happy Reading!**

Veronica was pacing back and forth in her hotel suite; it was 2:30 in the morning. The text from Weevil was the last that she had heard from him. She slid out of bed about an hour ago, hoping that something would happen in order for her to get Weevil set free. She felt her phone vibrate and sighed a sigh of relief when she saw it was from Weevil; he couldn't be behind bars yet if he had the ability to text her.

"_I'm at the motel on the corner of heim and zeigler. Don't know the name, but you'll see a POS car outside. Room 112. See you soon?" _ Veronica smiled; it felt good to be back in the game of mystery and suspense; albeit without her boyfriend. She grabbed her bag from the couch and headed out to her car and made her way to a very grimy motel. She approached the door and before she had a chance to knock, Weevil opened it.

"Am I glad to see you." He said as he hugged her warmly.

"We should really consider hanging out when you aren't wanted for something." She said as she returned his embrace.

"Tell me about it." Weevil said, obviously frustrated.

"How can somebody frame you, using your fingerprints; it seems unlikely." Veronica spoke softly, almost doubting herself.

"That guy got the car from Angel; I was the last one to wipe down the interior. I'm positive that that is how they got my fingerprints off the car, and the murderer got lucky that those fingerprints are from an ex felon." He said as he sat himself next to the petite blonde. She nodded her head, trying to figure out a solution.

"So the person who really killed Liam is out there somewhere, and I have no idea how to find him. For once." She sighed as she fell backwards on the rickety bed.

"You're Veronica Mars, you solved your best friends' murder 3 years ago. You found the rapist on the Hearst campus. From where I'm sitting, you can do just about anything." Weevil spoke, and it made Veronica smile.

"It wouldn't be as difficult if I promised Logan I was done with the dangerous stuff. I'm pretty sure this qualifies as dangerous." Veronica spoke as she put her hands behind her head to support it.

"Yeah, I would say so." Weevil spoke as he stretched his legs out next to Veronica.

"So tell me about the car. Engine, trans, everything." Veronica spoke quickly.

"Wow V, kinda turning me on with all this car talk." Weevil winked at her playfully.

"Wanna know what will turn you on more?" Veronica said with sultriness. Weevil eyed her. "When I clear your name for the umpteenth time and get the real guy behind bars." Veronica winked, and Weevil smiled.

"It was a 96 Impala SS, standard with a small block V8 engine, transmission was a 4L60E. 1996 was the last year Impala SS's were made." Weevil spoke. "Any of this helping you?"

"Other than broadening my knowledge of what lies beneath the hood of a 96' impala…" she shrugged. "How about the guy that came to get the car?"

"It wasn't Liam, that's for sure."

"I didn't figure he'd get his own getaway car, but what did the guy look like?" Veronica pried.

"Wasn't a guy, it was a woman about 5 foot 3, maybe 145 pounds, blonde hair, green eyes, was wearing a red shirt." Weevil said.

"Wow, got a lot from meeting her." Veronica joked.

"Come on V, she was gorgeous, I couldn't help but stare. Isn't that also a helpful thing for you?" Weevil asked. Veronica stood as she paced the inside of his motel room.

"It does, but I need a name. Her unoriginal looks don't really define her." Veronica said. Weevil got off the bed and headed to a bag next to his TV stand, he pulled out receipts and things from the junkyard until he passed one over to Veronica.

"If you can decode her signature, then there ya go." He shrugged as he put the other receipts back into the bag, and sat back on the bed; watching Veronica pace.

"The first name is Gloria, but the last name is pretty messed up." She continued pacing the room, before looking over towards Weevil. "Does Angel ask for their driver's license to get a car by any chance?"

"Nah, it's a junkyard. Most of the people come and get shitty cars and fix them up and sell them for 5 times the value."

"How did she pay, do you remember?" Veronica questioned.

"It was a cheap car, 800 bucks; could be anything from cash to a credit card. I fix them so they run, I don't seal the deal." Weevil cracked his knuckles. "You should probably be asking Angel these questions; he probably tried getting her number; he's got more info than I do." He said quickly.

"I see; I'll head over to the junkyard in the morning and have a chat with him." Veronica began, "And what happened to you mister stud? You didn't try getting her number?" Veronica prodded lightly.

"Ah, come on V, we both know you're the only girl I need in my life. Enough chaos surrounds you; it constantly feels like I'm married." Weevil joked, Veronica laughed lightly.

"It's been a pleasure as always, hubby." Veronica winked before grabbing her bag from the doorway and heading back to the hotel suite. She leaned her head against the door and heard movement. She glanced at her phone and saw that it was only 5:30 in the morning; who was up this early in this room? She quickly concocted an excellent excuse before letting herself back into the hotel room.

"How is he?" Mac asked from the side of the room. Veronica let out a small sigh of relief; she wouldn't have to tell her crafted lie to her boyfriend.

"He's good, I've got a lead and I have to head to the junkyard tomorrow. I just don't know how this is going to work." She spoke as she glanced over at Logan's bedroom door.

"You ever considered just telling him?" Mac asked cautiously.

"Are you kidding? If he ever knew that I was back helping put murderers behind bars instead of finding missing dogs, we would be over in a heartbeat." Veronica spoke as she yawned and leaned back against the couch.

"You know if he can't handle the fact that this is what you want to do for the rest of your life; maybe he isn't the one for you." Mac shrugged, and fell back against the couch as well.

"I love him, Mac." Veronica looked over towards her friend. "If lying to him is making him less worried about me; it's what needs to happen right now. I'll deal with the aftermath later."

Mac smiled "Well do you need me to distract them tomorrow…" she glanced at the clock,"….today?"

"If you could? I should only be gone a couple hours at most. I just need to figure out a last name." Veronica begged.

"Of course, I'll figure out something to keep them busy for a while. Go have fun, solve crimes, all that Veronica Mars-y stuff you do." Mac smiled before she and Veronica closed their eyes to get a couple hours of sleep. Before either of them realized they had fallen asleep, they heard voices around them that made them wake up.

"Dick, is that necessary?" Mac asked sleepily, as Dick turned towards her.

"Sorry, a little argument between Logan and I about the better power ranger." Dick said as he grabbed a water bottle from the fridge.

"And this couldn't wait until later?" Veronica said groggily as she pulled herself off of the couch, and glanced over at the clock. "I have to head out!" she said quickly as she grabbed her bag from the ground and rushed off towards the door. Logan hurried over to her.

"You just woke up, and you're already out of here? I've barely seen my girlfriend this summer." Logan said as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"You live with her. She will be home in a couple of hours." She said sweetly before kissing him on the nose and closing the door behind her.

"Where is she off to right now?" Logan questioned Mac as he grabbed some type of leftover from the fridge. Mac searched her mind for excuses, and settled on the basic one that required no real explanation.

"She went to her dad's office. To do some secretarial stuff; anything to keep herself in the business I guess." Mac shrugged, she noticed a touch of guilt sink through Logan. She hadn't intended on hurting him, but maybe it was what he needed.

"I know she's into the private investigation thing. I accept that." Logan said as he took a bite of whatever it was in the white container.

"Do you?" Mac felt herself get a little defensive over her friend.

"Is it so much to ask that your girlfriend not take on dangerous cases?" Logan asked.

"No. It is too much to ask when you have your girlfriend give up on something she loves and something that she is good at." Mac felt relieved, and wandered off to Dick's bathroom to take a shower.

"I'm impressed." Dick said softly, before getting a quick punch on his shoulder. "What dude? She makes a good point. I wouldn't tell Mac to stop doing… the computer stuff." Dick nodded before walking back into his bedroom to change clothes; leaving Logan alone with his leftovers and his thoughts.

"Her name is Gloria; she was blonde, and quite pretty from what Weevil says." Veronica spoke to Angel. He was looking through the credit card history.

"I remember her; but I don't see her credit card listed on here." He said as he kept looking for it.

"Is it possible that she paid with cash?" Veronica asked.

"That's probably the case, but I did get her number." He smiled slightly, and grabbed a piece of paper from inside his desk and handed it to Veronica.

"Have you called it?" Veronica asked, as she picked up the phone that was on his desk.

"Not yet, gotta make a woman wait a little while." He said swiftly. Veronica put the phone back on it's cradle.

"The number has been disconnected. Do you mind if I use your computer?" Veronica asked as Angel looked at a couple of people entering the junkyard. He mumbled something as he walked away to tend to the people waiting for him. He gave them friendly handshake; Veronica figured he knew who they were before he went to greet them. She sat down in front of the computer screen and typed in the prying eyes website to enter the number she had just acquired. As the page was loading; Veronica saw a picture pop up and it matched Weevil's description quite well. She scanned the page, but there wasn't a Gloria listed; there was however another name that was listed under the phone number. She clicked on the name listed, and instead of the pretty blonde that was on the previous page; she was greeted with a very thin brunette plastered on the page. Listed under the name of Paige Kendal.

"Okay Paige, let's see who you are…" Veronica spoke out loud as she scrolled down the page to find that Paige was married. She felt her heart beat quicker once she saw the name of the man she was married to.

"Ian Sorokin?" Veronica spoke again, making sure that she wasn't seeing things. She then typed his name into the search bar, and was greeted with many outstanding warrants. Most of them for drug possession or driving under the influence. There were a few that caught her eye.

"Racketeering, extortion, narcotics, and illegal gambling?" She questioned out loud. It then hit her as to why there were these charges. She picked up her phone and dialed Weevil's number.

"Hey it's me… I found the woman who bought the car… She's married to the Russian Mob." Veronica felt those words come from her throat and realized this could quite possibly be a dangerous job after all.


End file.
